2 Bengal ministers in Modi 2.0 govt

Kolkata: Two MPs from Bengal — Babul Supriyo and Debasree Chaudhuri — have been made ministers in the Narendra Modi government’s second term in office. This is the first time after a gap of 18 years that two BJP MPs from Bengal are in the Cabinet. BJP leaders Tapan Sikdar and Satyabrata Mookherjee had been ministers in the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1999 and 2004.
Singer-turned-politician Supriyo was a junior minister in the Modi government after his debut contest from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat in 2014.BJP president Amit Shah called him on Thursday afternoon and asked Supriyo to attend the meeting with Modi before the oath-taking ceremony.
BJP MP from Raiganj Chaudhuri was the other to get a call from Shah. A full-time political activist, Chaudhuri is the general secretary of West Bengal BJP. Known to be a dedicated organiser, this 48-year-old politician turned out to be a giant-killer by defeating heavyweights Deepa Das Munshi of Congress and CPM’s Md Selim.
Chaudhuri hails from Balurghat in Dakshin Dinajpur and her ancestral home is at Khadimpur. The BJP leader came down to Burdwan to continue her studies and later shifted to Baguiati when she started working at the state BJP headquarters. At a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chaudhuri took oath in English.
“I am happy. I will work on the advice of the BJP president and PM Modiji to put north Bengal on the development track. People of this state have suffered for long. I will dedicate myself to the uplift of people, and north Bengal in particular. Raiganj residents needn’t worry. I am coming to your help soon,” Chaudhuri said, before leaving for Delhi.
Chaudhuri’s selection was doing the rounds when Shah said during campaigning that she would be made a minister if she won. She defeated heavyweights in a constituency that has a 53.05% minority population. Her win from Raiganj is a success case of BJP’s bid to counter-consolidate the Hindu community backed by locals who stood firmly by the party for months after the Darivit episode where two students were allegedly killed in police firing.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh is unfazed with not getting a call from Shah. “I have worked for the organisation since I joined politics. I will love to take the state unit to its goal of bringing about the desired ‘paribartan’ in Bengal like we did in the Lok Sabha polls,” said Ghosh, before leaving for Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony. “My priority is the state organisation. I never dreamt of becoming a minister. I think running the ministry is not my cup of tea,” he added.
A section of BJP organisers had expected one representative in the Modi government from Jangalmahal — Purulia, Bankura, Bishnupur and Midnapore — where the party made a major breakthrough, giving a push to the saffron surge by a few notches from the 2018 rural polls. In Purulia, bodies of BJP activists were found hanging from poles with hand-written posters warning villagers against joining BJP.
Bengal BJP leaders said the state unit will take help of ministers and 16 party MPs to build a constituency-wise organisation to effect ‘paribartan’, beginning with the pending civic polls, including in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, in 2020.