West Bengal Cabinet expansion on June 1

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is likely to expand his Cabinet on June 1 (Monday) and allocate key portfolios to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

According to sources in the State administration, the first BJP Cabinet in the State is likely to have more than 30 members, with their names to be announced after formal approval from the party’s central leadership.

After the landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly election, Mr. Adhikari and five other BJP MLAs — Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik, and Kshudiram Tudu — were sworn in as Ministers by Governor R.N. Ravi on May 9. Since taking oath, Mr. Adhikari has been overseeing 42 of the State’s 54 departments. 

Selection criteria

Now that the Cabinet is being expanded, senior BJP leaders such as Tapas Roy, Sankar Ghosh, and Swapan Dasgupta are likely to be included. Former Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh and senior BJP leader Ritesh Tewari are also among other top contenders.

Along with seniority, the BJP is likely to take regional and community representation into account, especially to ensure that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women are included. The Cabinet is also likely to include representatives from northern and south western Bengal, areas which many earlier governments have ignored. The majority of BJP MLAs are first time legislators, and thus, political and administrative experience will also be crucial in selecting Ministers.

Mr. Adhikari also announced that the Budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will commence on June 22, which will see the new BJP government’s first full budget. There is a lot of speculation about whether the Finance portfolio will be given to an elected MLA or the whether the BJP will rope in an economist to handle the State’s finances, which are stressed because of the cash transfer schemes rolled out by the previous Trinamool Congress regime.