Three weeks after the first BJP-led government in West Bengal was sworn in under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, the state is set to get a full-fledged Council of Ministers on Monday.
In a post on X, Adhikari said at least 35 MLAs will be sworn in as ministers at a ceremony scheduled for 11 am at Lok Bhavan. Governor RN Ravi will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers.
“We stand committed to fulfilling the aspirations of the people of West Bengal,” Adhikari said.
According to sources, several prominent BJP leaders are expected to be inducted into the Cabinet. The likely entrants include former TMC strongman Arjun Singh, cricketer-turned-politician Ashok Dinda, former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, and BJP leader and actor Rupa Ganguly.
Tapas Roy, a former minister in the Mamata Banerjee government who later joined the BJP, is also expected to find a place in the ministry.
Several BJP legislators who retained their seats in the Assembly elections are also likely to be inducted. Among them are Ajay Kumar Poddar, a second-term MLA from Kulti; Dipak Barman, a second-term MLA from Falakata; Sankar Ghosh, a second-term MLA from Siliguri; and Joyel Murmu, a three-time MLA from Habibpur.
Most of the remaining inductees are expected to be first-time legislators.
When Adhikari took oath as West Bengal’s first BJP Chief Minister on May 9, only five other BJP MLAs — Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Dilip Ghosh, Ashok Kirtania and Kshudiram Tudu — were sworn in alongside him. The West Bengal Council of Ministers can accommodate up to 44 ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states, underscoring the significance of the party’s victory in West Bengal.
The BJP had chosen May 9 for the oath-taking ceremony as it coincided with Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The move was widely seen as an attempt to counter the Trinamool Congress’s long-standing criticism that the BJP does not adequately represent Bengal’s cultural identity.
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the BJP ended the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in West Bengal, winning 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly. The Trinamool Congress was reduced to 80 seats, suffering its worst electoral setback since coming to power in 2011.
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