The BJP government on Wednesday assigned portfolios to its 35 ministers a month after roaring to power in Bengal, with chief minister Suvendu Adhikari keeping several departments central to the dispensation’s administrative goals.

Both school and higher education have been allocated to leaders with a prominent RSS background. The Sangh believes that the curricula of both schools and higher educational institutions need to be “revamped as these are influenced by Marxist thoughts” because of the 34-year Left rule. The Mamata Banerjee government did not change the curricula.

The panchayat and agriculture portfolios are also with leaders with strong RSS roots — Dilip Ghosh and Dudh Kumar Mondal.

Rashbehari MLA Swapan Dasgupta has been given the crucial finance portfolio, while Maniktala legislator Tapas Roy has been assigned commerce and industries.

Suri MLA Jagannath Chattopadhyay has taken charge of higher education and technical education. Dipak Barman, the Falakata MLA, will look after school education. Both leaders have an RSS grounding.

Besides home and hill affairs, Suvendu has kept with himself the land and land reforms, power, fire and emergency services, information and cultural affairs departments.

It is not unusual for a chief minister in Bengal to helm multiple departments. Then chief minister Mamata Banerjee had looked after departments such as home and hill affairs, land, health, and information and cultural affairs. Officials, however, pointed out that there was a basic difference between Trinamool and the BJP.

“The BJP is more organised, while the TMC was solely dependent on Mamata. In a government led by the BJP, it is interesting that the chief minister has kept so many departments with himself,” a source said, pointing to the preeminence Suvendu appears to have received alongside a regimented party with an assertive leadership.

According to sources, land will be the most critical department in the government’s scheme of things over the next few years.

“The BJP is eyeing big-ticket investments in the state to change the course of the economy. But for this, it has to move away from the previous government’s hands-off land policy towards a proactive set-up that would make land available to industries and also for infrastructure development. For this, a new policy has to be adopted. The chief minister has taken up theresponsibility himself,” a bureaucrat said.

The power department is also crucial at a time the government wants to install smart meters for domestic consumers.

“The previous government, too, had tried to implement this to modernise the power sector, but it had to stall the effort in the face of resistance from consumers. Smart meters being a central scheme, the new BJP government in the state will have to implement it,” an official said.

Another official pointed to the need for an assertive decision on the proposed Deocha-Pachami coal mine project. “The previous government had taken it up as one of its major projects. But given how deep the coal layers are, the new government will have to take a call on the future of the project,” he said.

The charge of the information and cultural affairs department will give the chief minister direct control of measures to amplify the government’s programmes to the people. “The department bridges the gap between the government and the media. It is necessary for the government to project the state as an investment-friendly destination,” a bureaucrat said.

The home and hill affairs department, which Suvendu will helm, is the cadre-controlling authority of police officers, including IPS bureaucrats. The personnel and administrative reforms department is the controlling authority of all other officers, including the IAS and WBCS cadres.

Sections of bureaucrats feel that although finance and commerce and industries have been assigned to Swapan Dasgupta and Tapas Roy, respectively, the chief minister will have an eye on the functioning of these departments.