Mamata Banerjee’s third term, which completed six months on Friday, started on the wrong foot with her own defeat at Nandigram. Six months later, the chief minister lost her former mentor and key member of her inner circle Subrata Mukherjee after his demise on Thursday night. A second minister, Sadhan Pande, has been ailing (the just deceased Mukherjee was handling Pande’s department too for the last few months) for some time now. A third minister, Amit Mitra, is bowing out of the cabinet on health grounds, opting for an advisory role.

Of the remaining 21 cabinet rank ministers, 12 are in their 60s and five in their 70s. Mukherjee was 75 when he passed away. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who won from the Khardaha Assembly seat in the October 30 bypoll, is currently the oldest at 76. Among the 10 junior ministers with independent charge, Ratna De Nag is the oldest at 73, while three others are in their 60s. The remaining ministers are in their 50s.

Before his death, Mukherjee was among the Trinamul quartet arrested by the CBI in connection with the Narada bribery sting operation which had embroiled the ruling Trinamul in a major controversy in the run up to the 2016 Assembly polls. Five years later, the CBI acted on the case within days of the Assembly poll results being declared. Apart from the deceased Mukherjee, his cabinet colleague Firhad Hakim, Trinamul lawmaker from Kamarhati Madan Mitra and former Calcutta mayor Sovan Chatterjee were also arrested.

“There had been trouble (in the Banerjee household involving Mamata and her heir apparent and nephew Abhishek) over giving tickets to the tainted ministers. Abhishek was in favour of including fresh faces with a clean record, but Mamata did not want to dump the old guard, especially those like the late Subrata da, who were privy to many an upheaval within the party,” said a Trinamul source.

Abhishek’s taking the moral high ground on matters of public probity did take a beating after his wife and he faced summons from the Enforcement Directorate over an alleged coal mining scam. Since his interrogation by the central agency’s officers, the Diamond Harbour MP and the party’s all India general secretary, has stepped up the ante against the Congress. Many see Trinamul’s sudden belligerence against the grand old party as a ploy to split the non-BJP votes in poll bound small states like Goa and Tripura.

In Bengal’s politics, corruption has proved to be a non-issue as both the ruling Trinamul and main Opposition BJP have encouraged poaching of each other’s elected representatives. After the BJP’s drubbing in the state Assembly polls, most of the key defectors, like former minister Rajib Banerjee and former Bidhannagar mayor Sabyasachi Dutta, have returned to the Trinamul fold. Both are relatively young but for them to immediately gain the trust of Mamata or Abhishek could be a tall task.

“Unlike a Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay or a Jyotipriya Mullick, who has stayed with the party in every situation, leaders like Rajib and Sabyasachi did not think twice before switching camps. Didi had made Sabyasachi the first mayor of a prestigious township like Salt Lake,” said a Trinamul source.

In the districts, too, the party has seen a steady influx of leaders who owe their allegiance to Abhishek and would like to be rewarded with plum posts either in the organisation or the government. Also waiting in the wings are Trinamul newbies like the former two-time Asansol MP Babul Supriyo. After stepping down as MP, Supriyo, who has also been a junior minister at the Centre, would expect a plum post. With the death of Mukherjee, the departments of panchayat and rural development, public enterprises and industrial reconstruction and those held by Pande, consumer affairs, self-help group and self-employment, are rudderless.

In Amit Mitra’s absence, Mamata is most likely to retain the finance department with a junior minister to handle day-to-day affairs of the most crucial portfolio after Home (Political).

Cabinet ministers in their 70s

Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (76)

Amit Mitra (73)

Sadhan Pande (70)

Bankim Hazra (71)

Siddiqullah Chowdhury (72)

Cabinet ministers in their 60s

Manas Ranjan Bhunia (69)

Partha Chatterjee (69)

Jyotipriya Mullick (63)

Arup Roy (65)

Firhad Hakim (62)

Javed Ahmed Khan (65)

Swapan Debnath (69)

Moloy Ghatak (65)

Ujjal Biswas (67)

Biplab Mitra (69)

Rathin Ghosh (62)

Soumen Mahapatra (62)

MoS Independent charge

Ratna De Nag (73)

Subrata Saha (67)

Akhil Giri (62)

Chandrima Bhattacharya (65)