The West Bengal government on Monday expanded its Council of Ministers, with 35 legislators taking oath as ministers at a ceremony held at Lok Bhawan in Kolkata.
Governor R N Ravi administered the oath of office to the new ministers, taking the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 41 under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The expansion is aimed at strengthening the state’s administrative machinery and enhancing governance across departments.
Among those inducted into the cabinet were Dipak Barman, Arjun Singh, Shankar Ghosh, Gauri Shankar Ghosh, Tapash Roy, Manoj Kumar Oraon, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Ajoy Poddar, Swapan Dasgupta, Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee and Kalyan Chakraborti, among others.
The swearing-in ceremony marked a major expansion of the state cabinet, with responsibilities and portfolios expected to be allocated among the newly inducted ministers.
Ahead of the ceremony, BJP MLA Arjun Singh, who was among those sworn in, expressed his readiness to assume new responsibilities in line with the expectations of the government, party and people.
“I always take on new responsibilities and strive to fulfil them,” Singh told ANI.
He said public service would remain the primary focus of his work. “Even today, I am about to take on a new responsibility. Whatever the government wants, the party wants, or the people want, we must rise to the occasion—that is our priority,” he added.
The cabinet expansion comes a day after Chief Minister Adhikari announced that 35 ministers would be inducted into the state government.
In a post on X on Sunday, the Chief Minister said Governor R N Ravi would administer the oath of office to the new ministers at Lok Bhawan.
“The full Cabinet of the democratically elected Nationalist State Government of West Bengal will be sworn in at the Lok Bhavan. Thirty-five ministers of the West Bengal government will take their oath of office, administered by His Excellency, the Hon’ble Governor Shri R N Ravi Ji. We stand committed to fulfilling the aspirations of the people of West Bengal,” Adhikari said.
(With inputs from ANI)
