By TCN Staff Reporter,
Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee on Friday took oath as first woman chief minister of West Bengal. She has come to power after giving a humiliating defeat to the Left Front that was ruling the state for last 34 years. In the 43-member cabinet, Mamata has inducted five Muslim faces from her party.
Several thousands of people present at the swearing-in ceremony included former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister AK Antony.
The Mamata Banerjee ministry will have 43 members including her. Of these 36 from her party Trinamool Congress and two from the Congress took oath on Friday.
Muslim ministers
In her cabinet Mamata has inducted Haidar Aziz Safwi, Javed Ahmed Khan, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Firhad Hakim and Noor Alam Chowdhury–all from her party.The two members from Congress who took oath yesterday include Abu Hena,Congress MLA from Lalgola constituency in Malda district. Five more from Congress are yet to take oath. So, in the present 38-member Mamata team there are six Muslims.
In the present 294-member Assembly, there are 59 Muslim MLAs, including 25 from Trinamool Congress and 15 from Congress. In the last assembly there were 46 Muslim MLAs, of which 34 were from the Left Front.
In the just concluded Assembly poll Trinamool Congress-led alliance has won 226 seats. The Left Front has got just 61 seats.
Dressed in a white sari, Mamata took the oath in Bengali. She and her colleagues were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor MK Narayanan at the Raj Bhawan in Kolkata at 1.01 PM on Friday. Mamata reached Raj Bhavan in a black Santro car after visiting the Kalighat Temple close to her residence. However, a big chunk of the Muslim voters key behind her massive victory might have missed to witness the historic moment as Friday Prayers were being offered in mosques at the same time.
Cabinet Ministers
1. Shri Subrata Bakshi
2. Shri Partha Chatterjee
3. Shri Amit Mitra
4. Shri Manish Gupta
5. Shri Subrata Mukherjee
6. Janab Abdul Karim Chowdhury
7. Shri Sadhan Pande
8. Shri Upendra Nath Biswas
9. Janab Javed Ahmed Khan
10. Shri Rabindranath Bhattacharya
11. Smt. Sabitri Mitra
12. Shri Jyotipriya Mallick
13. Shri Shanti Ram Mahato
14. Janab Haider Aziz Safwi
15. Shri Moloy Ghatak
16. Shri Purnendu Basu
17. Shri Bratya Basu
18. Shri Rachhpal Singh
19. Shri Hiten Barman
20. Shri Goutam Deb
21. Janab Nure Alam Chowdhury
22. Shri Shankar Chakraborty
23. Shri Rabiranjan Chattopadhya
24. Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar
25. Shri Ujjal Biswas
26. Shri Shyamapada Mukherjee
27. Janab Firhad Hakim
28. Dr. Sukumar Hansda
29. Shri Soumen Mahapatra
30. Shri Arup Roy
31. Shri Chandranath Sinha
32. Dr. Manas Ranjan Bhunia
33. Janab Abu Hena
Ministers of State
1. Shri Manjul Krishna Thakur
2. Shri Madan Mitra
3. Shri Subrata Saha
4. Shri Shyamal Mondal
[Photo by www.thehindu.com]