By-election effect: Mamta removed the minority affairs minister, took charge herself

Kolkata (IANS) | The recent by-election defeat in the Sagardighi assembly constituency in Murshidabad district signaled the slippage of dedicated vote banks in the minority-dominated erstwhile Trinamool Congress bastion and prompted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to replace the minister in charge of minority affairs and madrassa education and take charge herself. inspired. The decision to remove Ghulam Rabbani from the post of minority affairs minister was announced on Monday, while it also said that the affairs of the department would now be under the purview of the chief minister. Rabbani has been transferred to the Horticulture Department.

Chandranath Sinha, Minister of State in charge of MSME and Textiles, has been given the additional charge of Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Madrassa Education. In the Sagardighi bypoll, Left Front-backed Congress candidate Byron Biswas defeated Trinamool’s Debashish Banerjee by a margin of 22,980 votes. The result came as a blow to the Trinamool, as Sagardighi—a minority-dominated constituency—was a traditional bastion of the ruling party, where it had won with a large margin since 2011.

Recently, Trinamool had also reshuffled the minority cell of the party. Now the Chief Minister himself taking charge of the Minority Affairs and Madrassa Education Department becomes important in the emerging political situation of West Bengal.

–IANS