Kolkata, June 3: The announcement regarding the allocation of departments in the newly expanded cabinet led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in West Bengal has been postponed. Initially, this decision was anticipated to be made on Wednesday, but it is now expected to be announced on June 5.
According to sources connected to the matter, the process of finalizing department allocations among ministers could not be completed during the crucial cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. This was the third cabinet meeting of the new government. Due to some technical reasons, a final decision on the department allocations was not reached, leading to a two-day delay.
It is noteworthy that on June 1, a grand ceremony was held at the Lok Bhawan in Kolkata, where 35 legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took their oaths as ministers. This group included 13 cabinet ministers, three ministers of state with independent charge, and 19 state ministers.
Following the swearing-in of these 35 ministers, the total number of ministers in the West Bengal cabinet has risen to 41. Previously, on May 9, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and five other ministers had taken their oaths.
With the inclusion of the 13 new cabinet ministers, the number of cabinet-ranked ministers, including the Chief Minister, has increased to 19. According to constitutional provisions, the maximum number of ministers in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly can be 44. Therefore, there is still room for three more ministers to be added.
All eyes are now on which important departments, such as finance and industry and commerce, will be assigned to whom. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had clarified immediately after taking office on May 9 that his government’s priorities include strengthening the state treasury, which is burdened by debt, and implementing policy reforms to attract significant investments.
Sources connected to the BJP’s state leadership indicate that the Chief Minister may currently retain the finance department. There are discussions within the party about bringing in a prominent Bengali economist from Delhi to contest the upcoming by-election for the Nandigram assembly seat, who could later be entrusted with the finance ministry.
In the recently concluded West Bengal assembly elections, Suvendu Adhikari won from both the Nandigram and Bhawanipur seats. He defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by over 15,000 votes in the Bhawanipur seat.
Subsequently, Suvendu Adhikari decided to retain the Bhawanipur seat, resulting in the Nandigram assembly seat becoming vacant, which will necessitate a by-election.
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