Bengal: 'Small’ ministry shuffle on Wednesday

A lot of things are being written… as the honourable CJI (Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana) has said, (media) trials in kangaroo courts are underway: Mamata

Mamata Banerjee: File Picture

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   02.08.22  : Mamata Banerjee on Monday said there would be a “chhotto (small)” reshuffle of her cabinet on Wednesday amid murmurs that the Trinamul Congress was tiptoeing to a one-person-one-post policy, a doctrine apparently pushed by the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

The chief minister held a brief news conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat, in the afternoon to announce the state cabinet’s decision to create seven new districts in Bengal, going on to broach the subject of the rejig, which was widely rumoured as likely on Monday.

“A lot of things are being written… as the honourable CJI (Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana) has said, (media) trials in kangaroo courts are underway,” she said.

Mamata was referring to Justice Ramana’s July 23 remark deploring “concerted campaigns” against judges on electronic and social media.

“Some (in the media) have become big busybodies. Kamaraj Plan, total restructuring and whatnot (in speculation)…. Well, we have no such plans,” said Mamata, dismissing purported plans of an en masse resignation of the entire cabinet to make way for a new one. Plans of a drastic overhaul had been in speculation in the power corridors of Bengal since the ruling Trinamul Congress’s stand with regard to Partha Chatterjee’s arrest became clear on Friday.

“Yes, we have to carry out a reshuffle. Subratada (Mukherjee) passed away, he was a senior leader. Sadhan Pande passed away, also a senior leader. Partha Chatterjee is in prison. Who will do their work? Somebody has to. A lot of departments remain unoccupied,” added the chief minister, conspicuously terse in the three-minute news conference.

She pointed out that just those three seniors in the cabinet — Mukherjee, Pande, and Chatterjee — used to handle a bunch of key departments until recently.

“Subratada used to handle departments like panchayat and public health engineering. Sadhan Pande used to handle departments such as self-help groups, consumer affairs, and co-operatives. Parthada used to handle industries, IT, parliamentary affairs. These departments remain unassigned. It is not possible for me to handle everything myself. There needs to be a distribution of responsibilities,” said Mamata.

“Therefore, on Wednesday, we will carry out a chhotto reshuffle at 4pm,” she added. “From the cabinet’s existing members, four-five of them, we will utilise them in party organisation instead. We will induct five-six new faces.”

Trinamul insiders said Jangipara MLA Snehasis Chakraborty, Baranagar MLA Tapas Roy, Dinhata MLA Udayan Guha, Jangipur MLA Jakir Hossain, Gosaba MLA Subrata Mondal, Naihati MLA Partha Bhowmick and Ballygunge MLA Babul Supriyo were among those in consideration for induction. Of them, Roy and Hossain have been part of her cabinet in the past.

“Besides the vacant slots of Subratada, Sadhanda, and Parthada, vacancies are likely to be created by the removal of (minister of state for school education) Paresh Adhikary, (minister of state with independent charge of environment) Ratna De Nag, (irrigation minister) Saumen Mahapatra, (minister of state for power) Akhruzzaman, and (forest minister) Jyotipriya Mallick,” said a source in the ruling party.

“However, given her (Mamata’s) famously mercurial nature, none of these names might feature in the end, in the changes of Wednesday,” he added.

Sources in her party said this was not a happy occasion for the chief minister and she wanted to go about without fuss.

“That she is taking it seriously was clear from her warning to her colleagues in the cabinet meeting that preceded the news conference. She said, rather grimly: ‘Don’t do anything that damages the party’,” he added.

Before the meeting, Mamata also cleared dozens of changes in the district leadership of her party, sanctioning a list of district presidents and chairpersons for its 35 organisational districts.

“The main takeaway from those organisational changes is that it clearly is a first, crucial step towards the implementation of the contentious Opop (one person, one post) policy, over which there was practically a fight within the party this winter,” said a Trinamul MP, referring to the tussles between the clique of Trinamul Number Two Abhishek Banerjee and poll consultant Prashant Kishor, and the so-called old guard, led by then secretary-general Chatterjee and state president Subrata Bakshi.

In February this year, before a temporary truce — with Mamata standing by the old guard — was achieved, Abhishek had expressed his desire to step down as the party’s national general-secretary over disagreements regarding a number of issues, with Opop being foremost among them. Back then, Trinamul had Mamata’s blessings to formally distance itself from the policy that was officially adopted and announced by the leadership in June last year.

“Now, with Partha gone and the old guard in a disarray, Abhishek will make sure the Opop ball too starts rolling,” said the MP.