# First Banerjee ministry

* This article is part of a series aboutMamata Banerjee
Chief Minister of West BengalIncumbent
MLA from Bhabhanipur (2011-present)
Leader of Trinamool Congress (2001-present)
Early life and education
Recognitions
Electoral Performance
General elections
1999
2004
2009
2014
2019
2024
Assembly elections
2011
2016
2021
Early Political Movements
Singur land controversy
Nandigram violence
Tenure as Chief Minister
State Council of Ministers
First
Second
Third
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in West Bengal
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration
New Police Commissionerates
Howrah City
Barrackpore
Bidhanagar City
Chandannagar
Asansol-Durgapur
Emblem of West Bengal
2023 Indian Wrestler's protest
Initiatives
Kanyashree Prakalpa
Didi Ke Bolo
Controversies
2013 Kamduni gang rape and murder case
2012 Suzette Jordan gangrape case
2014 Birbhum gang rape case
2015 Kandhamal gang rape case
Saradha Scam
Rose Valley scandal
Narada sting operation
Nandigram controversy
2021 Bengal post-poll violence
SSC scandal
2023 West Bengal local elections violence
2024 Sandeshkhali violence
2024 Kolkata rape and murder incident
Political Slogans
Ma Mati Manush
Khela Hobe
Joy Bangla
Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video :
vte :
The Council of Ministers of West Bengal is the collective decision-making body of the Government of West Bengal, composed of the Chief Minister and the most senior of the government ministers. The Cabinet is the ultimate decision-making body of the executive within the Westminster system of government in traditional constitutional theory.
The Union Council of Ministers of the Government of West Bengal was formed after the 2011 West Bengal state assembly election held in six phases in 2011: on 18 April, 23 April, 27 April, 3 May, 7 and 10 May 2011. The results of the election were announced on 13 May 2011 and led to the formation of the 15th Vidhan Sabha. Mamata Banerjee took oath as the 11th Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011, followed by the oath-taking ceremonies of the present 'Council of Ministers'.

## Constitutional requirement
### For the Council of Ministers to aid and advise Governor

According to Article 163 of the Indian Constitution,
   * There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his function, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.
   * If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter as respects which the Governor is by or under this Constitution required to act in his discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion shall be final, and the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.
   * The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the Governor shall not be inquired into in any court.
This means that the Ministers serve under the pleasure of the Governor and he/she may remove them, on the advice of the Chief Minister, whenever they want.

### For other provisions as to Ministers

According to Article 164 of the Indian Constitution,
   * The Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister, and the Minister shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor: Provided that in the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and backward classes or any other work.
   * The Council of Minister shall be collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State.
   * Before a Minister enters upon his office, the Governor shall administer to him the oaths of office and of secrecy according to the forms set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.
   * A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
   * The salaries and allowances of Ministers shall be such as the Legislature of the State may from time to time by law determine and, until the Legislature of the State so determines, shall be a specified in the Second Schedule.

## Government and politics

The West Bengal is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. There are two branches of government. The legislature, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, consists of elected members and special office bearers such as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, that are elected by the members. Assembly meetings are presided over by the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker in the Speaker's absence. The judiciary is composed of the Calcutta High Court and a system of lower courts. Executive authority is vested in the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, although the titular head of government is the Governor. The Governor is the head of state appointed by the President of India. The leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Legislative Assembly is appointed as the Chief Minister by the Governor, and the Council of Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Council of Ministers reports to the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral with 295 Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs, including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. Terms of office run for 5 years, unless the Assembly is dissolved prior to the completion of the term. Auxiliary authorities known as panchayats, for which local body elections are regularly held, govern local affairs. The state contributes 42 seats to Lok Sabha and 16 seats to Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament.
The main players in the regional politics are the All India Trinamool Congress, the Indian National Congress, the Left Front alliance. Following the West Bengal State Assembly Election in 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress and Indian National Congress coalition under Mamata Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress was elected to power (getting 225 seats in the legislature). West Bengal had been ruled by the Left Front for the past 34 years, making it the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government.

## Council of Ministers

There are a total of 41 ministers, excluding the Chief Minister of West Bengal. This is a list of members of the Council of Ministers of the Government of West Bengal after the 2016 state assembly election. All ministers are based in offices of their respective Ministries in Kolkata. All Cabinet members are mandated by the constitution to be members of the Vidhan Sabha of West Bengal. In a departure from the norm the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, who did not join the cabinet as a member of the Vidhan Sabha.

### Ranking

There are three categories of ministers, in descending order of rank:
* Cabinet Minister: Senior minister in-charge of a ministry. A cabinet minister may also hold additional charges of other Ministries, where no other Cabinet minister is appointed
* Minister of State (Independent Charges): Junior minister not reporting to a cabinet minister
* Minister of State (MoS): Junior minister with overseeing Cabinet Minister, usually tasked with a specific responsibility in that ministry. For instance, an MoS in the Finance Ministry may only handle taxation

### Cabinet Ministers

| Sl. No. | Name | Ministries | Constituency |
| 1 | Mamata Banerjee | Chief Minister of West Bengal Also in-charge of: Ministry of Home Affairs Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Ministry of Land & Land Reforms Ministry of Information & Cultural Affairs Ministry of Hill Affairs Micro and Small Scale Enterprises Ministry of Personnel & Administrative Reforms Ministry of Minority Affairs & Madrassah Education Ministry of Transport | Bhabanipur |
| 2 | Partha Chatterjee | Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Minister for Education Minister of Science & Technology and Biotechnology | Behala Paschim |
| 3 | Amit Mitra | Ministry of Finance Ministry of Excise Ministry of Commerce and Industry Ministry of Industrial Reconstruction Ministry of Public Enterprises Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise and Textile | Khardaha |
| 4 | Subrata Mukherjee | Ministry of Panchayat & Rural Development Ministry of Public Health Engineering | Ballygunge |
| 5 | Bratya Basu | Tourism | Dum Dum |
| 6 | Jyotipriyo Mullick | Ministry of Food & Supplies | Habra |
| 7 | Manish Gupta | Ministry of Power and Non-Conventional Energy | Jadavpur |
| 8 | Aroop Biswas | Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports Ministry of Housing | Tollygung |
| 9 | Firhad Hakim | Ministry of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs | Kolkata Port |
| 10 | Sovan Chatterjee | Ministry of Fire & Engineering | Behala Purba |
| 11 | Abani Mohan Joardar | Ministry of Correctional Administration Ministry of Refugee Relief & Rehabilitation | Krishnanagar Uttar |
| 12 | Sadhan Pande | Ministry of Self Help Groups Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution | Maniktala |
| 13 | Purnendo Bose | Minister for Agriculture Minister for Technical Education, Training & Skill Development | Rajarhat-Gopalpur |
| 14 | Arup Roy | Ministry of Co-operation | Howrah Central |
| 15 | Asish Banerjee | Ministry of Biotechnology Statistics and Programme Monitoring | Rampurhat |
| 16 | Javed Khan | Ministry of Disaster Management | Kasba |
| 17 | Churamani Mahato | Ministry of Backward Classes Welfare | Gopiballavpur |
| 18 | Soumen Mahapatra | Ministry of Water Resources Investigation & Development | Pingla |
| 19 | Rabindranath Bhattacharjee | Ministry of Agriculture Marketing Statistics & Programme Implementation | Singur |
| 20 | Goutam Deb | Ministry of North Bengal Development | Dabgram-Phulbari |
| 21 | Chandranath Sinha | Ministry of Fisheries | Bolpur |
| 22 | Binay Krishna Barman | Ministry of Forest | Mathabhanga |
| 23 | Moloy Ghatak | Ministry of Labour Ministry of Law & Judicial Services | Asansol North |
| 24 | Rajib Banerjee | Ministry of Irrigation and Waterways | Domjur |
| 25 | Santiram Mahato | Minister for Self Help Group Self-employment and Pachimanchal unnyan | Balarampur |
| 26 | Abdul Karim Chowdhury | Minister for Mass Education Extension and Library Services | Islampur |
| 27 | Sankar Chakraborty | Ministry of Public Works Department Ministry of Cooperation and Inland Water Transport | Balurghat |
| 28 | Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury | Ministry of Food processing Ministry of Horticulture | English Bazar |
| 29 | Upendra Nath Biswas | Ministry of Backward Class Welfare | Bagda |
| 30 | Haider Aziz Safwi | Ministry of Correctional Administration | Uluberia Purba |
| 31 | Somen Mahapatra | Ministry of Water Resources Investigation & Development | Tamluk |
| 32 | Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar | Ministry of Environmental Affairs | Mahisadal |
| 33 | Noor Alam Chowdhury | Ministry of Animal Resources Development | Murarai |
| 34 | Madan Mitra | Minister (without portfolio) | Kamarhati |

### Ministers of State (Independent Charges)

* ↑ I/C stands for independent charge. It means that a minister can hold portfolios independently in a junior rank.
| Sl. No. | Name | Ministries | Constituency |
| 34 | Majulkrishna Thakur | Ministry of Refugee Relief & Rehabilitation Ministry of State for Micro & Small Scale Enterprises and Textiles | Gaighata |
| 35 | Swapan Debnath | Ministry of MSME | Purbasthali South |
| 36 | Manturam Pakhira | Ministry of Sunderbans Development | Kakdwip |
| 37 | Shashi Panja | Minister of Women Development & Social Welfare, Child Development MoS–Health and Family Welfare | Shyampukur |

### Ministers of State (MoS)

| Sl. No. | Name | Ministries | Constituency |
| 38 | Bachhu Hansda | Ministry of North Bengal Development | Tapan |
| 39 | Shyamal Santra | Ministry of Panchayat & Rural Development Ministry of PHE | Kotulpur |
| 40 | Sandhya Rani Tudu | Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs | Manbazar |
| 41 | Giasuddin Mollah | Ministry of Minority Affairs Ministry of Madrasah Education | Magrahat Paschim |

## Former Ministers

| S.No | Name | Constituency | Assumed office | Left office | Department served | Party |
| 1 | Sunil Chandra Tirkey | Phansidewa | 20 May 2011 | 22 September 2012 | Ministry of State for Consumer Affairs | INC |
| 2 | Pramatha Nath Ray | Kaliaganj | 20 May 2011 | 22 September 2012 | Ministry of State for Development & Planning | INC |
| 3 | Sabitri Mitra | Manikchak | 20 May 2011 | 24 May 2014 | Ministry of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare | AITC |
| 4 | Sabina Yasmin | Mothabari | 20 May 2011 | 22 September 2012 | Ministry of State of Security, Counterterrorism and Police | INC |
| 5 | Abu Nasar Khan Choudhury | Sujapur | 20 May 2011 | 22 September 2012 | Ministry for State for Science and Technology | INC |
| 6 | Subrata Saha | Sagardighi | 20 May 2011 | 24 May 2014 | Ministry for State for Public Works | AITC |
| 7 | Abu Hena | Lalgola | 20 May 2011 | 22 September 2012 | Ministry for Fisheries Ministry for Aqua-culture Ministry for Harbours | INC |
| 8 | Manoj Chakraborty | Baharampur | 20 May 2011 | 18 January 2012 | Ministry for State for Parliamentary Affairs | INC |
| 9 | Shyamal Mondal | Canning Paschim | 20 May 2011 | November 2012 | Ministry for State for Sunderban Affairs (Independent Charge) Ministry of State for Irrigation and Waterways | AITC |
| 10 | Manas Bhunia | Sabang | 20 May 2011 | 25 September 2012 | Ministry of Irrigation and Waterways | INC |
| 11 | Shyama Prasad Mukherjee | Bishnupur | 20 May 2011 | 2013 | Ministry of Textiles | AITC |
| 12 | Hiten Barman | Sitalkuchi | 20 May 2011 | 2013 | Ministry of Forest | AITC |
| 13 | Subrata Bakshi | Bhabanipur | 20 May 2011 | 10 December 2011 | Ministry of Transport Ministry of Public Works Department | AITC |