Kolkata: A suspense has unfolded over the cabinet expansion of the first BJP government in West Bengal as most of the 54 portfolios remain in the grip of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. The state has never seen such an unusual situation in many decades in the past.
At present, Mr Adhikari has as many as 42 portfolios– including home, health, education, finance and industries– under his belt after the distribution of a remaining dozen among his five cabinet colleagues– Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Asok Kirtania, Khudiram Tudu and Nishit Pramanik– with the formation of first council of ministers on May 11.
While Mr Ghosh has become minister of three departments: panchayat and rural development, animal resource department and agriculture marketing, Agnimitra Paul has got two: women and child development and social welfare and municipal affairs.
Two more departments, food and supplies and cooperation, went to Mr Kirtania and three others— tribal development, backward classes welfare and minority affairs and madrasah education— were allocated to Mr Tudu. Nishit Pramanik has been made ministers of two departments— North Bengal development and youth services & sports.
With the initial portfolio allocation, the state secretariat, Nabanna, had said, “The rest of the departments will be looked after by Shri Suvendu Adhikari, Hon’ble Chief Minister.” Since then, two weeks have passed but there has been no word either from the BJP or its government about the cabinet expansion.
This has triggered an intense race quietly within the party for ministerial berths. In some portfolios, two faces have emerged as competitors. One of them is health and family welfare for which Indranil Khan and Sharadwat Mukherjee, both being doctors, have turned out to be strong contenders.
Another department is the information and cultural affairs, which is with Mr Adhikari like his predecessor and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, for which names of Swapan Dasgupta and Roopa Ganguly are doing rounds.
There are also several other prominent party MLAs like Tapas Roy, Ritesh Tiwari, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Sajal Ghosh, Shankar Ghosh and Noman Rai who have been in the fray to be ministers for the first time.
With the queues for the coveted berths getting longer and both the BJP high command in New Delhi and the RSS not rushing to settle the issue, the state BJP seemed to be somewhat rattled about whom to allot what as their star batsman, Mr Adhikari, remains busy in implementing the poll manifesto promises on a priority basis under the guidance of central leadership.
There is also a speculation that until the party gets the stamp from the RSS on the probable ministers, the cabinet expansion will hang in uncertainty. Incidentally, last week Mr Adhikari and state party chief Samik Bhattacharya visited New Delhi and met their top brass.
On the questions of cabinet expansion, Mr Bhattacharya then said, “A new government has been formed just. We need some time. All governments have a breathing period. Let it go ahead before a full cabinet formation. We will do everything on our part.” He also ruled out any scope of talks with the CM about the cabinet expansion during their visit.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
