On Monday, the government of West Bengal headed by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari made a significant cabinet reshuffle, with 35 BJP members swearing allegiance as ministers. Governor RN Ravi took the oath of office at a ceremony which added much to the strength of the state council of ministers, taking it’s size to 41 members.
The expansion is seen as a crucial move to consolidate the new BJP government and for it to have wider representation across the regions and communities in the state. Earlier, top leaders like Dipak Barman, Arjun Singh, Shankar Ghosh, Gauri Shankar Ghosh, former TMC leader Tapas Roy, Manoj Kumar Oraon, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Ajoy Poddar, Swapan Dasgupta, Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee and Kalyan Chakraborti were inducted into the cabinet.
Coinciding with this, BJP MLAs Rajesh Mahata, Indranil Khan and Malati Rava Roy were also sworn in as Ministers of State with independent charge. The cabinet expansion follows the swearing-in of cabinet ministers Adhikari and five other senior ministers at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and state Chief Ministers from BJP governments.
The key portfolios that were retained under the Chief Minister Adhikari were Home and Hill Affairs. Agnimitra Paul was given the ministries of Municipal Affairs and Urban Development, Women and Child Development and Social Welfare and became the first woman Minister in the cabinet. The government is keen on the rural governance and development in the government with senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh being handed over the Panchayat and Rural Development Department as well as Animal Husbandry.
The Cabinet expansion will pave the way for the government to speed up policy implementation and expand its administrative footprint in West Bengal.