The cabinet of Subhendu Adhikari government has been expanded in West Bengal. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power for the first time in the state, took care of every section in the cabinet selection. 24 days ago, when Shubhendu took oath as the Chief Minister, Nisith Pramanik was brought from the Center and made the minister of the state. Now in the new cabinet expansion also, there are many unknown and unique faces who have been included in the cabinet.
Nearly 3 weeks after BJP formed the government for the first time in the state, Chief Minister Subhendu Adhikari expanded his cabinet on Monday. 35 BJP MLAs took oath as ministers in the swearing-in ceremony held in Nabanna. With this expansion, the total number of ministers in the state has increased from 6 to 41. In the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, the maximum number of ministers can be 44, thus there are still 3 ministerial posts left in the BJP government.
13 cabinet members and 19 MLAs became ministers of state
The West Bengal cabinet was expanded today on Monday. In today’s cabinet expansion, apart from 13 cabinet ministers, 3 ministers of state (independent charge) and 19 ministers of state are included. The 13 ministers who joined the cabinet include Tapas Roy, Deepak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Arjun Singh, Manoj Oraon, Gauri Shankar Ghosh, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Swapan Dasgupta, Kalyan Chakraborty, Anup Kumar Das, Ajay Kumar Poddar, Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay and Dudh Kumar Mandal. Whereas those who took oath as Minister of State (Independent Charge) include Malti Rabha Roy, Indranil Khan and Rajesh Mehta.
Apart from these, 19 other ministers of state have been made. The MLAs who were sworn in as ministers of state included Ashok Dinda, Joel Murmu, Anandamoy Barman, Kaushik Choudhary, Gargi Das Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Diwakar Gharami and Sumana Sarkar. Apart from these, Shantanu Pramanik, Purnima Chakraborty and Umesh Rai also took oath as ministers of state.
Maid worker becomes minister
The most surprising name among the names included in the cabinet is that of Kalita Majhi. Kalita, who won the election on BJP ticket from Aushagram area of East Burdwan, has been made minister. His life has been a full struggle.
Before coming into politics, Kalita used to work as a house maid. And his monthly earning was only Rs 2500. To run the family, she worked as a house maid while her husband worked as a plumber. Kalita had won by a margin of 12,535 votes.
Young MLA and lawyer Biraj becomes minister
Similarly, 30 year old MLA Biraj Biswas from Karandighi of North Dinajpur has also been made a minister. He is one of the youngest MLAs in the assembly. By profession he is an advocate in Calcutta High Court. He made his mark through student politics. Biraj, who came into active politics after coming out of student movement, has previously held the post of State Secretary and All India Secretary of ABVP. He had defeated veteran leader Gautam Pal from Karandighi.
Ashok Dinda has also been made Minister of State. Dinda has been a fast bowler of the Indian cricket team. Dinda, who won the election from Moyna seat for the second consecutive time, has been made the Minister of State. Similarly, two journalist-turned-politician MLAs have been made ministers. These leaders are Swapan Dasgupta and Jagannath Chattopadhyay.
Many women MLAs have been made ministers in today’s cabinet, which include Kalita Majhi, Moumita Biswas Mishra, Sumana Sarkar, Gargi Ghosh Das and Purnima Chakraborty. Apart from these, Agnimitra Paul had already been made a cabinet minister.
Strong representation of North Bengal in the cabinet
The representation of North Bengal has increased significantly in the Shubhendu cabinet. Along with Pramanik, several MLAs from North Bengal, including Shankar Ghosh, Vishal Lama, Jual Murmu, Anandmoy Barman, Deepak Barman and Malti Rabha Roy, have been made ministers, besides Assembly Speaker Rathindra Ghosh also hails from the region.
The BJP government in the state was formed last month on May 9, when Chief Minister Shubhendu along with 5 other cabinet ministers took oath in a grand ceremony. Earlier, everyone was also taken into consideration in the selection of 5 cabinet ministers who took oath along with the Chief Minister. Agnimitra Paul (woman), Ashok Kirtania (Matua community), Nisith Pramanik (Rajbanshi community), and Kshudiram Tudu (tribal community) represent different classes.
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