A total of 15 ministers, 13 state ministers and two deputy ministers, including some high profile ones, have not been retained in the upcoming cabinet under the new government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, and Health Minister Zahid Maleque are prominent among the dropped ministers.
On Wednesday evening, the cabinet division introduced 25 ministers and 11 state ministers for the next cabinet. This time, there will be two technocrat ministers, but no deputy ministers.
Before the election, the Awami League-led cabinet had 25 ministers, 19 state ministers, and three deputy ministers, in addition to the prime minister.
Following the announcement of the election schedule, ministers Yeafesh Osman and Mustafa Jabbar and state minister Shamsul Alam stepped down from their positions as they were serving as technocrats. Of them, only Yeafesh Osman has been retained in the new cabinet.
However, three state ministers of the soon-to-expire cabinet – KM Khalid, Monnujan Sufian, and Zakir Hossain – failed to secure nomination from the ruling party in the 12th national polls. Now, they have been excluded from the cabinet.
All other cabinet members were nominated for the election, but three state ministers – Mahbub Ali, Swapan Bhattacharjee, and Enamur Rahman – failed to emerge victorious. The trio has now failed to secure places in the new cabinet.
Apart from them, ministers of finance, foreign affairs, planning, commerce, health, textiles and jute, social welfare, fisheries and livestock, environment, forest, and climate Affairs, Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs, land, railways, and expatriate welfare and overseas employment have not been retained.
The dropped state ministers are Kamal Ahmed Majumdar, Zahid Ahsan Russel, Ashraf Ali Khan, Shahriar Alam, Sharif Ahmed, Begum Fazilatunnesa, while the deputy ministers are Habibur Nahar, AKM Enamul Haque Shamim.
