The Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in Bengal has hit the ground running but what is perhaps the most critical portfolio remains conspicuously vacant.
While the new chief minister unveils a blitz of high-expectation populist measures, the saffron camp is scouring the horizon for a finance minister, ready to look beyond its 207 elected MLAs to find an outsider capable of revising the stakes for Bengal’s stagnant economy.
The delay is a calculated pause. The saffron camp pored over its list of legislators only to find a vacuum of high-level economic expertise. The leadership has now shifted focus to a lateral entry strategy: drafting a heavyweight civil society member close to the ruling dispensation in Delhi, and securing a seat via the by-election route.
Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council and a strategist with global footprints at the G7 and OECD, has — according to multiple sources in the higher tiers of the saffron ecosystem — emerged as the frontrunner.
His name had briefly been floated for the top job itself before the high command settled on former Trinamool functionary Suvendu’s current raw, anti-Trinamool street cred.
To induct an outsider, a seat must be vacated. Suvendu, having pulled off twin victories in Bhabanipur and Nandigram, must choose which fortress to relinquish.
Bhabanipur is unlikely to be abandoned given the symbolic weight of the victory, leaving Nandigram as the probable landing strip for the new finance minister.
However, the move is already triggering friction. Local leaders in East Midnapore are drafting pleas for the bhoomiputro to stay put. If the outsider plan hits a wall of local sentiment, Meghnad Pal (Adhikari’s election agent) is being discussed as the homegrown fallback.
“Ideally, Suvendu’s father (Sisir Adhikari) would have been the best choice for Nandigram,” a senior BJP leader in Calcutta said.
“But considering his age and reduced political activity, and with his brothers Dibyendu and Soumendu already being MP and MLA (respectively), the seat is now likelier to be used for accommodating a high-profile outsider who might eventually become the finance minister.”
He added: “In such a situation, Sanjeev Sanyal’s name is naturally coming up as the strongest contender.”
With Ashok Lahiri moved to Niti Aayog and Swapan Dasgupta viewed as an erudite voice rather than a numbers man, the party’s options for a Bengali economist are narrowing.
Sanyal was spotted with his wife Smita — who played a key role in mobilising women in favour of the BJP in Bengal — at the swearing-in ceremony in traditional dhuti-kurta.
He fits the profile of the “Global Bengali”, bringing to the table the pedigree of St Xavier’s and St James’ of Calcutta and St John’s of Oxford, alongside a reputation for a relentless focus on infrastructure-led growth.
Picking Sanyal would, however, bring its own brand of intellectual friction. While his supporters see a visionary capable of dismantling “Nehruvian stagnation”, critics in academia view him as a “popular historian” whose revisionist Hindutva narratives lack scholarly rigour.
Sanyal’s transition from the Deutsche Bank to the finance ministry in 2017 marked his entry into the heart of the Lutyens power structure. As principal economic adviser, he helped draft six editions of the Economic Survey, championing “process reforms” — small, meticulous changes to the ease of doing business — rather than grand, sweeping gestures.
Sanyal is currently chancellor of the Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Sanyal’s worldview is deeply rooted in the Arthashastra. He views Chanakya not just as a historical figure but as a teacher of political economy whose principles of internal security and simplified taxation remain the gold standard for statecraft.
Sanyal is essentially a high-risk, high-reward gambit. He is a man who thrives on the “ocean of churn”, and his appointment would signal that the BJP is done with the “mechanical toy” approach to the economy.
Whether he can translate his theories on maritime history and urban renewal into a tool to transform the gritty reality of Bengal’s ghost towns aka industrial parks remains to be seen.
“He is a blend of Bengali roots and global exposure. He understands Bengal emotionally and intellectually, while also understanding how modern economies function globally,” said an economist known to be close to the BJP.
“He has repeatedly emphasised infrastructure-led growth, port and logistics development, expansion of the maritime economy, urban renewal, education-industry linkage, innovation and entrepreneurship. These are precisely the areas Bengal needs to focus on if it wants to reclaim economic relevance.”
The Suvendu cabinet knows it cannot afford a slow start. After years of capital flight and industrial rot, the first BJP government in Bengal is desperate for a pilot who can navigate the complexities of capital markets and urban renewal.
Sanyal’s cryptic post on results day — referring to the “Goddess of Time” turning the “Wheel of Epochs” — is now being read as a harbinger of his own entry into the state’s power structure.
Whether Sanyal will be the man to spearhead this overhaul depends on whether the party can navigate the emotional minefield of the bhoomiputro vacating Nandigram for an outsider.
The wheel is turning, but for now, the treasury remains without a keeper.