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In a stern perform or perish message, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today stripped Partha Chatterjee of his Commerce and Industry portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle, giving the key department to Finance Minister Amit Mitra to give a boost to industrialisation in the state.
Though Chatterjee was ostensibly removed from the post to "lessen his burden", the shake-up involving 12 ministers came on the heels of a meeting chaired by Banerjee last week when she pulled up several ministers for non-performance and failure to utilise funds.
The removal of Chatterjee, TMC General Secretary and considered second in rank in the Cabinet, followed muted criticism of his failure to deliver.
"Partha Chatterjee was retaining many portfolios and he has also to look after the party as he is the general secretary. He was under tremendous pressure. So in order to lessen his burden it has been decided that Amit Mitra, who is also the Finance Minister, will look after the Industry and Commerce Department," the Chief Minister said.
She said Chatterjee would retain IT, electronics and parliamentary affairs departments and will also assist the her in her departments.
Chatterjee, a trusted lieutenant of the Banerjee, has played an important role in shaping up TMC's policies.
In a bid to speed up development work ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee reallotted portfolios and inducted two new faces in the reshuffle of the 31-month-old ministry, which also saw a minister of state getting independent charge.
The new faces are Shashi Panja, daughter-in-law of former party leader and Union minister Ajit Panja, and Binay Burman.
