The Darjeeling hills have had no representation in Bengal’s council of ministers for the past three decades and no leader from the region has been chosen as a cabinet minister for more than five decades.
The BJP government expanded its cabinet on Monday. None of its three MLAs from the hills, Noman Rai from Darjeeling, Sonam Lama from Kurseong and Olympian Bharat Chetri from Kalimpong featured in the new cabinet.
The BJP has held the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency since 2009.
“We were expecting a representation in the BJP’s Bengal cabinet,” said a hill resident.
Tamang Dawa Lama of CPM was the last hill leader in Bengal’s council of ministers. He served as a minister from 1982 to 1996 on three occasions.
Shiv Kumar Rai of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) had served as a deputy labour minister from 1952 to 1957. Gazendra Gurung, of Congress (R), served as a deputy minister in 1972 and minister of state in 1975.
Deo Prakash Rai, also from ABGL, served as a minister in 1967, 1969 and 1971. He is the only hill leader to get a cabinet rank.
The council of ministers consists of the cabinet minister, minister of state with independent charge, minister of state (MoS) and deputy minister.
“Cabinet ministers yield real power and, to some extent, MoS with independent charge,” said DK Pradhan, a former Darjeeling MLA.
The CPM criticised the absence of a hill leader in the new government’s council of ministers.
“The Left Front government had representation from the hills, not just in the council of ministers but also in the Rajya Sabha. The Trinamool Congress only once sent a hill representative to the Rajya Sabha in its 15 years of rule,” said Saman Pathak, former CPM Rajya Sabha member.
The Left Front had sent at least seven hill leaders to the Rajya Sabha.
“Even the BJP’s Darjeeling Lok Sabha members (Jaswant Singh, S.S. Ahluwalia and Raju Bista) have been from outside the Darjeeling hills,” said Pathak. “The BJP is all noise when it comes to the Darjeeling hills and has failed to deliver anything concrete. They are only playing with the emotions of hill people.”
Most of the hill parties are aligned with the BJP and did not immediately react to the exclusion.
However, a GNLF leader highlighted that Bishal Lama, a Gorkha and two-time MLA from Kalchini — which falls under Alipurduar district in Dooars — was included as a minister of state in the new cabinet.
Darjeeling MP Raju Bista made a similar statement.
“It is a matter of great honour that under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister Sh. Suvendu Adhikari ji, that from our region three Cabinet Ministers, one MoS Independent Charge, and three MoS have been appointed,” said Bista in a written statement.
The three cabinet ministers from north Bengal include Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri, Manoj Kumar Oraon from Kumargram and Deepak Barman from Falakata.
Malati Rava Roy from Tufanganj took oath as minister of state with independent charge.
The ministers of state from the region are Bishal Lama of Kalchini, Anandamay Barman from Matigara-Naxalbari and Biraj Biswas of Karandighi.
While the Darjeeling hills have no representatives in the council of ministers, the Darjeeling district (plains) has two ministers, Shankar Ghosh and Anandamay Barman, both of whom are two-time MLAs.
