8
Party is expected to continue keeping controversial faces out of the ministry in future expansion rounds as well.
BJP kept several controversial and tainted MLAs out of the first West Bengal cabinet despite intense lobbying from within the party, as the central leadership sought to send out a political message that the new government would function differently from the Trinamool Congress regime, sources familiar with the discussions said.
Six members, including Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, took oath in the first round of cabinet formation on Friday. The ministers sworn in were Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Kshudiram Tudu and former Union Minister of State for Home Nishith Pramanik.
West Bengal can have a maximum of 44 ministers, including the Chief Minister. The BJP government can still induct up to 38 more ministers in future cabinet expansions.
Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Nitin Nabin and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were of the view that MLAs facing serious taint or controversial reputations should not be accommodated in the ministry so that the BJP could establish a visible distinction from the TMC’s image among voters.
According to sources, this approach was reflected in the composition of the first batch of ministers sworn in on Friday.
The lone major exception was former Union Minister of State for Home Nishith Pramanik, who has around 16 criminal cases registered against him, according to his election affidavit and publicly available records. The cases include serious IPC charges, an issue that had surfaced earlier as well when he was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister of State for Home.
BJP leaders have defended Pramanik by arguing that the cases were politically motivated and were lodged by the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government after he switched from the TMC to the BJP. Party leaders have repeatedly maintained that several BJP leaders and workers in Bengal faced criminal prosecution after joining the opposition camp during years of political confrontation in the state.
Sources said that after the BJP’s victory on 4th May, several newly elected MLAs began lobbying aggressively for ministerial berths and approached senior organisational leaders seeking inclusion in the cabinet.
According to sources, while some names were discussed and even informally approved at the organisational level in Kolkata, they were later struck down by the party top brass during the final round of consultations.
The central leadership is learnt to have taken the position that inducting MLAs facing allegations of corruption, extortion, syndicate links or other controversies would weaken the BJP’s effort to create a governance contrast with the TMC after coming to power in the state for the first time.
Party insiders said feedback from BJP supporters, ideological affiliates and well-wishers, including of PM Modi, was also conveyed to the leadership, with many arguing that the party should avoid appointing “tainted” figures if it wanted to preserve the credibility of its anti-corruption plank associated with the PM.
Sources further said the party is expected to continue keeping controversial faces out of the ministry in future expansion rounds as well because Prime Minister Modi is personally invested in how the BJP government functions in West Bengal.
The BJP’s victory in Bengal is being viewed within the party as a historic political breakthrough, given that the party had never before formed a government in the state. As Read had reported earlier, the BJP leadership believes that Modi’s personal popularity and direct campaigning played a central role in the party’s performance in Bengal.
Because of this, sources said, the Prime Minister is unlikely to compromise on inducting tainted names into the government even if pressure or political compulsions emerge from sections of the state leadership seeking accommodation for influential regional figures
Comments are closed.