Bengal was left with a government without Muslim representation for the first time in more than half a century as 35 new ministers were sworn in on Monday, swelling the Suvendu Adhikari ministry’s strength to 41.
While the ruling BJP had not fielded a single Muslim in the Assembly elections, with some senior leaders openly saying they did not need minority votes, the Constitution allows non-lawmakers to be inducted into governments provided they get elected within six months.
Monday’s development means that even the minority affairs department will have a non-minority minister, since all 41 ministers are Hindu. The portfolios are expected to be allocated on Wednesday.
Thirteen cabinet ministers and 22 ministers of state — three of them with independent charge — took the oath of office. They join Suvendu and the five other cabinet ministers sworn in on May 9.
Bengal, where almost a third of the voters are Muslim, has almost always had minority presence in the government. Among the few exceptions was the state’s first government after Independence, under then “Premier” Prafulla Chandra Ghosh.
Every Bengal government of the past 54 years, starting with Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s Congress government of 1972, has had prominent Muslim faces in the council of ministers.
“In the immediate aftermath of Independence and Partition, because of demographic shifts and intense communal polarisation, there were no Muslims in the Bengal government till S.M. Fazlur Rahman won from Kaliganj in the first Assembly elections in 1952,” a city-based political scientist said.
“He handled departments such as animal husbandry, fisheries, and local self-government in the Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prafulla Chandra Sen cabinets.
“But thereafter, other than a minor exception or two in the short-lived governments in the turbulent 1960s, there have been Muslim representatives in all proper Bengal governments. With no exceptions since, at least, 1972.”
The political scientist cited the examples of Syed Kazim Ali Mirza and Mohammed Rafique from the 1952-67 Congress governments, Mohammed Amin from the 1967-71 coalition era, and A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, Zainal Abedin and Abdus Sattar from the Ray government of 1972-77.
During its 34 years in power, the Left Front had Muslim ministers like Abdur Razzak Molla, Mohammed Amin, Anisur Rahaman and Mostafa Bin Quasem. Both the Speakers, Syed Abdul Mansur Habibullah and Hashim Abdul Halim, too were Muslim.
Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year reign featured Firhad Hakim, Javed Ahmed Khan, Md Ghulam Rabbani and Siddiqullah Chowdhury, among others, as prominent Muslim faces in the government.
North, districts rule In a state where the competitive wooing of the minority vote has been a key aspect of electoral politics, Monday’s developments seemed to mark a shift to geographical concessions, with north Bengal and rural areas the winners.
The northern districts, whose long-held grievances about economic and cultural neglect under the Left and Trinamool had turned them into BJP fortresses, have secured 10 ministerial berths — after having been rewarded with the election of Rathindra Bose as Speaker.
Mathabhanga MLA Nisith Pramanik, sworn in with Suvendu, has now been joined by Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh, Falakata MLA Dipak Burman and Kumargram MLA Manoj Oraon in the cabinet. The rest are junior ministers.
The hills, however, have been left entirely unrepresented yet again — a trend continuing since the 1960s — despite the BJP sweeping the region.
The ministry expansion has also shattered the decades-old south Calcutta hegemony, one represented by Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Javed Ahmed Khan, Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee and Sovan Chatterjee, apart from Mamata Banerjee herself.
Although Suvendu now represents Bhabanipur after giving up his Nandigram seat, he is indubitably from East Midnapore. And his team belongs firmly to the districts and the fringes.
From the city proper, only Maniktala’s Tapas Roy and Rashbehari’s journalist turned politician Swapan Dasgupta have made it to the cabinet alongside Behala Paschim’s Indranil Khan. So has Saradwat Mukhopadhyay from neighbouring Bidhannagar.
Shyampukur’s Purnima Chakraborty is a minister of state.
The list also reflects a calculated effort to reward the ideological old guard while addressing specific ethnic and class aspirations.
The RSS imprint is unmistakable in the selection of Mayureswar’s Dudh Kumar Mondal and Suri’s Jagannath Chattopadhyay (another journalist turned politician) as cabinet ministers.
In a nod to grassroots outreach, Kalita Maji, the Ausgram MLA who once worked as domestic help, has been made a minister of state. She took her oath alongside Rajesh Mahato, a Kurmi Samaj leader who spent decades agitating for language recognition and Scheduled Tribe status.
But women’s representation remains thin at just 7, accounting for 17 per cent of the ministry.
Agnimitra Paul remains the lone woman cabinet minister, joined by six ministers of state — Maji, Purnima Chakraborty, Malati Rava Roy, Moumita Biswas Misra, Sumana Sarkar and Gargi Ghosh Das.
Omissions
The list of those who missed out is no less surprising. Prominent actor-politicians Roopa Ganguly and Rudranil Ghosh have been conspicuously bypassed. Equally striking is the exclusion of the Panihati MLA, mother of the raped and murdered RG Kar doctor.
While her election victory symbolised the public fury at the hospital atrocity that contributed to unseating Mamata Banerjee, the party managers in Delhi have ultimately preferred seasoned party hands over emotional choices.
“The ministry formation reflects the BJP’s campaign position.… In the future, thoughts and perspectives could change within any political party,” political scientist Subhamoy Maitra said, commenting on the BJP not fielding any Muslims in the election.
“There are liberal forces within the BJP, too. So, this might change in thecoming days.”