The West Bengal government on Monday completed a major expansion of its Council of Ministers, with 35 legislators taking oath at a ceremony held at LokBhavan in Kolkata, taking the total strength to 41.

The induction of a large number of ministers marks a key administrative step for the government led by Chief Minister SuvenduAdhikari. The move is expected to facilitate the allocation of responsibilities across departments as the newly elected government settles into office and expands its administrative footprint across the state.

Governor RN Ravi administered the oath of office to the new ministers in the presence of senior leaders and officials.

Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal later announced the names of the ministers inducted into the expanded Council of Ministers. Those sworn in as Cabinet Ministers included Tapas Roy, Manoj Oraon, Arjun Singh, Gaurishankar Ghosh, Dipak Barman, SharadwatMukhopadhyay, Arup Kumar Das, SwapanDasgupta, Kalyan Chakraborty, Shankar Ghosh and DudhkumarMondal.

MalatiRava Roy, Rajesh Mahato and Indranil Khan took oath as Ministers of State with Independent Charge.

Those inducted as Ministers of State included Ashok Dinda, Kaushik Chowdhury, Jewel Murmu, HarekrishnaBera, Shantanu Pramanik, Umesh Roy, Purnima Chakraborty, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, DibakarGhorami, Nadiyar Chand Bauri, Gargi Das Ghosh, Amiya Kisku, KalitaMaji, Biraj Biswas, Sumana Sarkar, Anandamoy Barman, Bishal Lama and Dipankar Jana, among others.

Of the 35 ministers sworn in on Monday, 13 were inducted as Cabinet Ministers, three as Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 19 as Ministers of State.