Dilip Ghosh, a trusted workhorse of the RSS, was on Monday allocated three key departments of rural development, agricultural marketing and animal resources development, which are all important for rural, semi-rural Bengal.
“This is not a surprise. He has been one of the party’s tallest leaders since a time when we barely had a toehold in the state. He played a pivotal role in the initial rise that took us from nearly nowhere to 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. He was unfairly sidelined for years after the 2021 Assembly election debacle. Now, he will be accorded due respect,” said a BJP insider.
Ghosh is the Kharagpur Sadar MLA.
Bongaon Uttar MLA Ashok Kirtania was appointed the food and supplies minister. Ranibandh MLA Kshudiram Tudu was given charge of the tribal development, backward classes welfare, minority affairs and madrasa education departments. Mathabhanga MLA and former junior Union minister Nisith Pramanik was given charge of north Bengal development, and youth services and sports.
Asansol Uttar MLA Agnimitra Paul was given charge of women and child development and social welfare, besides the municipal affairs department.
“Several important departments are yet to be assigned. The Bengal cabinet can have 44 members (15 per cent of the 294-seat House), so more ministers will be sworn in,” said a source.
He added that the most interesting takeaway from the allocations ought to be how, contrary to expectations and rampant speculation, Ghosh and Paul were not made deputy chief ministers.
“But already, there are clear indications of the RSS-BJP seeking to strike a delicate balance in assigning departments. Dilip Ghosh, of course, is being given the importance he deserves,” said the source.
“Even among these five, you can already see: Ghosh is the RSS pick, Paul is a woman and the urban bhodrolok representative, Kirtania represents Matuas, Tudu is an adivasi, and Pramanik is the north Bengal face.”
In the key territory of north Bengal, which has been an area of strength for the BJP even at the peak of Mamata Banerjee’s hegemony, Cooch Behar retained the north Bengal development minister’s post for the third consecutive time —after Rabindra Nath Ghosh and Udayan Guha of Trinamool Congress (with a brief interlude in 2021-22, when Mamata held it herself).
In 2011, as Mamata assumed the chief minister’s office, she had created the north Bengal development department for the six districts then. In her first term, she had assigned the department’s charge to the region’s tallest leader for her party,
Gautam Deb.
“For years, north Bengal has remained deprived. We will ensure that the development of north Bengal is expedited and is carried out at the same pace as Calcutta and other parts of the state,” said Pramanik.
The BJP government of Bengal will also focus on the improvement of sports infrastructure across the state and will depoliticise the arena, he added.