A total of 13 cabinet ministers and 22 ministers of state, 3 of them with independent charge, will be sworn in at the Lok Bhavan on Monday with Bengal’s BJP government carrying out its first ministry expansion.

Earlier, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had taken the oath of office along with five other cabinet ministers on May 9. Since then, the government has been functioning with just six ministers, Suvendu alone handling 41 departments.

Maniktala MLA Tapas Roy and Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh have been named among the proposed cabinet ministers.

The list is also said to include Rashbehari MLA Swapan Dasgupta, Bidhannagar MLA Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay, Suri MLA Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Noapara MLA Arjun Singh, Mayureswar MLA Dudh Kumar Mondal and Falakata MLA Dipak Barman, among others.

The three ministers of state who will have independent charge of their departments include Behala West MLA Indranil Khan and Tufanganj MLA Malati Rava Roy.

Among the other ministers of state will be Moyna MLA Ashok Dinda and Shyampukur MLA Purnima Chakraborty.

After the morning swearing-in, Suvendu is likely to allot their departments in the afternoon at Nabanna.

Bengal, given the size of its Assembly, is allowed 44 ministers in addition to the chief minister. With Monday’s induction of 35 ministers, the government will have 40 ministers apart from thechief minister.

“It’s interesting that only 13 more cabinet ministers will be sworn in tomorrow,” a source said, adding that the BJP seemed to prefer a slim cabinet.

“It’s a good decision since most of the MLAs of the BJP, barring a few, have no experience in running even gram panchayats. In such a situation, only experienced MLAs can be givencabinet berths.”