KOLKATA: Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur and Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar (elected from Balurghat) were appointed junior ministers in the Union cabinet, prompting Trinamool to ridicule NDA's lack of full ministerial berths for them with a sartorial dig: "half-pant ministers".
This happened even as three-time BJP MP Saumitra Khan, denied a cabinet berth, said he might quit the party, though he later attended the swearing-in in Delhi.
Thakur was an MoS in the earlier cabinet; Majumdar is a new inductee.
Derek O'Brien, Trinamool's leader in Rajya Sabha, made the "half-pant ministers" comment while speaking to the press, over NDA allotting only junior minister portfolios to Bengal MPs.
He added that it was uncertain whether govt at Centre would last a fortnight.
'Half-pant mantris': TMC as state gets just 2 MoS
Taking a dig at BJP for allotting only minister of state berths to Bengal MPs, Trinamool's leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien on Sunday referred to them as "half-pant ministers" while speaking to reporters. TMC didn't attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Echoing CM Mamata Banerjee's earlier comments, O'Brien also said he doubted whether the NDA govt would last more than a fortnight. Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim labelled the swearing-in "temporary".
"This has been a mandate against BJP and PM Narendra Modi," a senior Trinamool MP said on Sunday, adding, "INDIA bloc partners like SP, Sena (UBT) and AAP also did not attend the swearing-in-ceremony." The MP said formal invites to Trinamool reached the party's New Delhi office as late as Sunday, around 12.45 pm. "Today being a Sunday, there was no one at the office," the MP added.
Responding to BJP's comment that Trinamool skipping the ceremony was "discourteous", the MP said: "BJP should be the last party speaking on political courtesies." He added: "PM Narendra Modi led a deeply divisive campaign in the 2024 polls, a campaign marked by hatred. This has been rejected by people. Even if this govt lasts, it will face its biggest challenge in the winter of 2024 when Maharashtra goes to polls (for its state assembly)."
"The INDIA bloc is being proactive. We are not merely sitting in the lobby, but we are actively pacing in the lobby," he went on to add.
Meanwhile, TMC MPs flew down to New Delhi on Sunday and received their Parliament ID cards.
TMC's LS leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Sunday rubbished comparisons between Modi and former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, saying that while Modi might be taking oath for a third term, he didn't have Nehru's mandate. Nehru was sworn in as the PM for the third time in 1962, when Congress won 361 seats, 10 down from the Lok Sabha polls of 1957.
Bandyopadhyay also said the opposition would play a positive role in the functioning of Parliament.