- Thirty five BJP MLAs took oath as ministers in Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's cabinet expansion
- Governor RN Ravi administered the oath at Lok Bhavan three weeks after Adhikari led BJP to victory
- BJP won 208 seats, ending Mamata Banerjee's 15-year Trinamool rule in the state
Thirty-five BJP MLAs, including Swapan Dasgupta, Tapas Roy, and Shankar Ghosh, took oath as ministers on Monday as part of an expansion of the Suvendu Adhikari-led cabinet in West Bengal.
Governor RN Ravi administered the oath to the legislators at a programme at the Lok Bhavan.
The oath-taking ceremony was held three weeks after 55-year-old Adhikari was sworn in as the Chief Minister on May 9 as the BJP secured 208 seats in the 294-member assembly, ushering in the first BJP government in the state and ending Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool's 15-year rule.
Along with Adhikari, BJP legislators Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtania and Kshudiram Tudu also took oath as ministers on that day.
The cabinet expansion was expected this week as Adhikari and state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya held meetings in New Delhi with the party's central leadership last week about the induction of members in the council of ministers.
After the induction of the 35 legislators into the council of ministers, the cabinet strength is now 41, three short of the maximum count of ministers that a government can have in the 294-member assembly.
BJP legislators Swapan Dasgupta, Dudh Kumar Mondal, Deepak Burman, Manoj Oraon, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Arjun Singh, Tapas Roy, Saradwat Mukherjee, Jagannath Chattopadhyay and Shankar Ghosh were sworn in as cabinet ministers in the Suvendu Adhikari government.
Party MLAs Rajesh Mahata, Indranil Khan and Malati Rava Roy took oath as MoS (independent charge).
BJP legislators Santanu Pramanik, Purnima Chakraborty, Umesh Rai, Joyel Murmu, Ashok Dinda, Anandamoy Burman, Kaushik Chowdhury, Gargi Das Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami and Sumana Sarkar were sworn in as ministers of state.
