Kolkata:
Days after the swearing-in of the extended cabinet of the BJP government in West Bengal, portfolios were allocated among the ministers on Wednesday, with finance going to Swapan Dasgupta, while the education sector was allocated to leaders closely identified with the RSS.
According to a notification issued by the state home department, veteran politician Tapas Roy, who crossed over to the BJP from the TMC in 2024, has been entrusted with the industries and commerce department.
While the former Rajya Sabha MP and journalist-turned-politician Dasgupta was entrusted with the finance department, the BJP government split the education department and placed it in the hands of two leaders regarded within the party as long-time members of the broader RSS ecosystem.
Suri MLA and former general secretary of the state BJP, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, was assigned the higher education department, while North Bengal leader Dipak Barman has been given the charge of school education.
The distribution of departments, finalised after consultations between the state leadership and the BJP’s central command, offers the clearest indication yet of how the party intends to balance governance, organisation and ideology in a state it wrested from the TMC.
Sharadwat Mukherjee, a doctor by profession, was assigned the health department, while BJP veteran Dudh Kumar Mondal got the charge of the agriculture department.
Chief Minister Adhikari retained the crucial home department along with law and judicial affairs, land and land reforms, power, information and cultural affairs, refugee relief and rehabilitation, personnel and administrative reforms, and hill affairs.
The move to divide the education department assumes significance against the backdrop of the school recruitment scam that engulfed the previous TMC government. The BJP has long argued that Bengal’s educational institutions and curriculum require both administrative cleansing and ideological reorientation.
Senior BJP leaders have in recent months repeatedly argued that the state’s school curriculum needs “correction of historical narratives” and a greater emphasis on India’s civilisational heritage and nationalist traditions.
It is also a departure from the model followed by the Union government and most BJP-ruled states, where school and higher education generally remain under a single minister.
The portfolio allocation also reflects an effort to accommodate diverse regional and organisational power centres within the BJP.
Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh, considered close to Adhikari, was given the charge of tourism and parliamentary affairs, while Noapara MLA Arjun Singh got the labour and transport departments.
Kalyan Chakraborty, an academician-turned-politician from Khardaha, was assigned information technology and electronics along with science and technology, biotechnology, food processing and horticulture.
North Bengal BJP leader Manoj Kumar Oraon was made forest minister, while Murshidabad MLA Gouri Shankar Ghosh has been entrusted with the backward classes welfare department.
Arup Kumar Das was allocated irrigation and waterways, while Ajoy Poddar got public health engineering.
Among the ministers of state with independent charge, Indranil Khan was entrusted with sports and youth affairs and consumer affairs, while Malati Rava Roy was given women and child development, along with self-help groups and project monitoring.
Rajesh Mahata, a prominent Kudmi leader from Jhargram, was made the minister of state with independent charge for animal resources development and fisheries.
The allocations complete the formation of the 41-member council of ministers headed by Adhikari.
The chief minister and his five cabinet colleagues — Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik and Kshudiram Tudu — had taken oath on May 9 and were assigned portfolios that day itself.
Paul got urban development and municipal affairs, Dilip Ghosh panchayat and rural development along with agricultural marketing, Ashok Kirtania was made food and cooperation minister, while Kshudiram Tudu got tribal development, minority affairs and madrasah education.
Nisith Pramanik is in charge of North Bengal development and water resources investigation and development.
The second round of cabinet expansion on June 1 saw Governor R N Ravi induct 35 more ministers, including 13 cabinet ministers and 22 ministers of state, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 41.
While the first phase of cabinet formation was about rewarding the BJP’s prominent faces, Wednesday’s portfolio allocation revealed the architecture of governance the party hopes to build in Bengal.
It entrusted veterans with overseeing major portfolios such as finance and industry, while regional leaders were accommodated across the administration, and the education sector emerged as the principal arena for a deeper ideological contest in post-TMC Bengal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
