In a Cabinet expansion just three weeks after taking charge, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday expanded the Bengal Council of Ministers to 41, by inducting 35 new members. This is said to be part of the BJP’s effort to balance regional, caste, and gender representation in its first government in the state.
Of the 35 new ministers sworn in by the Governor R N Ravi at the Lok Bhavan, 13 were inducted as Cabinet Ministers, three as Ministers of State with Independent Charge, and 19 as Ministers of State.
The 294-member West Bengal Assembly can have three more members in its Cabinet.
On Monday, thirteen leaders were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers, including Tapash Roy, Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Arjun Singh, Manoj Oraon, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Swapan Dasgupta, Kalyan Chakraborty, Anup Kumar Das, Ajay Kumar Poddar, Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay, and Dudh Kumar Mondol.
Nineteen legislators were inducted as Ministers of State, including Ashok Dinda, Umesh Roy, Koushik Chowdhury, Kalita Maji, Moumita Biswas Misra, Gargi Ghosh Das, Dipankar Jana, Purnima Chakraborty, Bishal Lama, Harikrishna Bera, Anandamoy Burman, Shantanu Pramanik, Biraj Biswas, Amiya Kisku, Juyel Murmu, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami, Sumana Sarkar and Nadiar Chand Bouri.
Malati Rava Roy, Indranil Khan, and Rajesh Mahato took oath as Ministers of State (Independent Charge).
Earlier on May 9, apart from the CM, five other Cabinet Ministers were sworn-in, including Union Minister-turned-state leader Nisith Pramanik, Agnimitra Paul, Dilip Ghosh, Ashok Kirtania, and Kshudiram Tudu. The election of Rathindra Ghosh as Speaker further strengthened North Bengal’s representation in the new government.
With this, of the BJP’s 41 Council of Ministers in West Bengal, six are women, as opposed to nine women ministers in the previous TMC Cabinet. As for the representation from various castes, the BJP Cabinet now has four tribal ministers and eight Scheduled Castes ministers. Additionally, nine ministers hail from north Bengal, increasing the representation of the region in the BJP government.
The inductees also represented the cross-section of Bengal’s society — with doctors, academics, journalists, and even those who worked in blue-collar jobs, such as house helps, before getting into politics, being offered berths in Suvendu’s council.
The BJP inducted Sharadwat Mukherjee, an oncologist who won the Bidhhannagar seat, and Kalyan Chakraborty, a professor from Khardaha, as cabinet ministers.
Another oncologist from Behala Paschim, Indranil Khan, was sworn in as Minister of State (Independent Charge), while Kalita Majhi, who worked as a house help before foraying into politics, has been inducted as Minister of State.
Shankar Ghosh (Cabinet Minister)
Ghosh had joined the BJP in March 2021, just before the Assembly elections that year, when he was elected as an MLA from the Siliguri Assembly constituency. He had then defeated TMC’s Omprakash Mishra by a margin of 35,586 votes. He also served as the party’s chief whip in the previous Assembly. Ghosh was re-elected from the constituency in the 2026 Assembly polls, defeating TMC’s Goutam Deb by a margin of 73,192 votes.
Arjun Singh (Cabinet Minister)
Singh’s political career began with the Congress — his father, Satyanarayan Singh, was a long-time Congress MLA. Later, when Mamata Banerjee formed the Trinamool Congress, the duo joined her party. In 2001, Arjun Singh was elected as first-time MLA on a TMC ticket from the Bhatpara Assembly constituency — a seat he retained in consecutive polls in 2006, 2011 and 2016. The turning point came in 2019, when the TMC refused him a seat from the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency. Singh then joined the Padma camp, defeating TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi in Barrackpore. His son, Pawan Singh retained the family seat, Bhatpara, fighting the bypoll on a BJP ticket. After the BJP’s defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections, Arjun returned to the TMC in 2022, but was again denied the party ticket in Barrackpore in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. So he went back with the saffron camp, but this time losing Barrackpore by a narrow margin. He then contested the bypoll in the Noapara Assembly seat, winning the seat for the BJP by a huge margin — a seat he retained in the 2026 Assembly polls.
Dr Kalyan Chakraborti (Cabinet Minister)
An agricultural scientist by profession, Chakraborti won the Khardaha Assembly seat for the BJP in the 2026 polls. Chakraborti holds a PhD, and before entering politics, he worked as a professor and agricultural scientist at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, specialising in orchard management.
Rajesh Mahato [MoS (Independent Charge)]
The former state president of Kurmi Samaj, Mahato joined the BJP during the party’s ‘Poriborton Yatra’ in West Midnapore’s Garbeta in March this year. He has been a key figure in the Kurmi movement for over 30 years — seeking the inclusion of Kurmali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and ST status for the Kurmi community. Mahato’s name had also surfaced in connection with an attack on former state forest minister Birbaha Hansda’s convoy during a TMC event in Jhargram on May 26, 2023. He was subsequently arrested and spent 42 days in custody. Rajesh currently faces 49 cases and has been arrested seven times.
Dr Indranil Khan [MoS (Independent Charge)]
A renowned oncologist by profession, Khan’s political career began as the president of the state BJP Youth Morcha (BJYM). The doctor-leader has taken to the streets during multiple protests, including during the anti-corruption movement. Khan practices medicine in Kolkata, where he has saved the lives of thousands of cancer patients. He has also been associated with social service in the state, which further helped his political journey. In the 2026 Assembly polls, Dr Khan was elected as an MLA from the Behala Paschim constituency on a BJP ticket.
Jagnnatha Chattopadhyay [MoS (Independent Charge)]
A journalist and social worker by profession with close roots with the RSS, Chattopadhyay joined the BJP around 2020. He had also contested the 2021 Assembly polls on a BJP ticket, but lost. He has also held several posts within the party, and won the Suri Assembly seat in Birbhum in the 2026 Assembly polls as a BJP candidate.
(With PTI inputs)