Full West Bengal cabinet today: BJP balances old-versus-new, regional aspirations

KOLKATA: The need to strike a balance among Bengal’s various regions and between BJP veterans and new entrants was among the factors that weighed heavily on the party leadership during the selection of ministers who will be sworn in on Monday.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari wrote on his X handle on Sunday that 35 ministers will take oath in the first expansion of the council of ministers since Bengal’s first BJP govt took up office on May 9. The govt is now functioning with six ministers, including CM Adhikari.
“Tomorrow, a full-fledged Council of Ministers of the elected nationalist government will be formed by the verdict of the people of West Bengal. For the purpose of expanding the Council of Ministers, 35 ministers of the West Bengal government will take their oaths at Lok Bhavan at 11am. His Excellency the Governor Shri R N. Ravi will administer their oaths at Lok Bhavan,” Adhikari wrote.
The Constitution mandates that the strength of a state’s council of ministers cannot exceed 15% of the strength of the assembly. Accordingly, the Bengal govt can have a maximum of 44 ministers, including the CM.
The composition of the council of ministers is set to reflect an internal balance between the old guard and the new entrants, who joined BJP after 2019, party sources said. It will also bear an imprint of RSS, the ideological anchor of the saffron party. The sources said the list of ministers underwent rigorous screening by the Sangh leadership.
Sangh veterans Dilip Ghosh and Kshudiram Tudu were sworn in along with CM Adhikari on May 9. The expected induction of senior functionaries such as Swapan Dasgupta is aimed at ensuring a synergy between the govt’s priorities and that of RSS.

7 MLAs from north Bengal may get berths

Regional and community representation has also been central to the selection of new ministers, BJP sources said. At least seven MLAs from north Bengal and two from Rarh Bangla (western districts) are expected to get berths. The Matua and Rajbanshi communities are likely to have two representatives each in the “full-fledged” council of ministers. The current cabinet has a Matua representative (Ashok Kirtania) and an ST member (Kshudiram Tudu).
An MLA from Jangalmahal is being considered for a key portfolio and one from West Midnapore is in the running for a cabinet berth. Three netas from Kolkata are likely to be on the list.
Among the names doing the rounds are Tapas Roy, Shankar Ghosh, Indranil Khan, Sharadwat Mukherjee, Subrata Thakur, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Malati Rava, Dipak Barman, Roopa Ganguly, Partha Ghosh, Dudhkumar Mandal, Utpal Maharaj, Joel Murmu, Gouri Shankar Roy, Ratna Debnath, Ajit Jana and Shruti Sekhar Goswami.
Although there is no official statement yet, CM Adhikari is likely to retain two critical portfolios, home (police) and finance, for now.