‘The party has handpicked the four names from Bengal after a lot of deliberations’.
New Delhi: Despite the BJP losing the recently concluded Assembly polls in Bengal, the party has inducted four new faces from the state into the new Council of Ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, giving a clear message that the BJP is still “very much interested” in the politics of Bengal.
Sources in the BJP said that the party has carefully handpicked the four names from Bengal into the new Council of Ministers after a lot of deliberations, feedback and understanding the value they would be able to add to the party in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
“The BJP is very much serious with Bengal and this has been proved by the fact that four of our MPs have been chosen for the very first time to be part of the Union Council of Ministers. And if you look at the names of the MPs who have been picked to be part of the Prime Minister’s council of ministers, each of them has huge mass or voter base with them. They are expected to deliver and consolidate their vote bank for the party. It is also a reward that the party has given them for their performance in the Assembly elections,” a senior BJP leader from Bengal told this newspaper.
The four BJP MPs who have been picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be included into his newly inducted Council of Ministers include Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur, Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik, Bankura MP Dr Subash Sarkar and Alipurduar MP John Barla.
Shantanu Thakur, the Member of Parliament from Bongaon Lok Sabha in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, has been appointed as the Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Inland Waterways. Thakur has been picked by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be inducted into his Council of Ministers after he has proven his mettle by delivering 12 of the 14 Assembly seats for the BJP that was directly under his supervision.
Apart from the seven Assembly segments that fall under his Lok Sabha constituency of Bongaon, Thakur was also in-charge of the Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency from where he delivered six out of the seven Assembly segments into the BJP’s kitty.
Thakur’s elevation also comes because of his influence over the Matua community in Bengal. He is the all-India head of the Matua Mahasangh. Matuas constitute about one crore population in Bengal and has influence in over 35 Assembly seats in Bengal. The community, which is primarily a scheduled caste community, had migrated to Bengal from Bangladesh due to religious oppression and persecution. The Matuas have primarily backed the BJP since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the party hopes that the community will continue to back the party in the future polls after their tallest leader has secured a berth in Modi’s team.
The story is similar with Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik, who belongs to the Raj Bangshi community of Bengal. Pramanik is one of the most influential leaders of the Raj Bangshi community and the BJP has paid special attention to garner votes of this community.
The Raj Bangshi community, which is concentrated in parts of North Bengal, has overwhelmingly supported the BJP, both during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and also during the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls.
Party insiders said that Nisith Pramanik has been rewarded by the top leadership of the party for being able to hold on to the votes of the Raj Bangshi community and the party also hopes that his elevation to the Union Ministry will instil confidence in this community since it is for the first time that a Raj Bangshi leader has ever been appointed as a Union minister. Nisith Pramanik has been appointed as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the recent Council of Minister overhaul.
The other two MPs from Bengal who have made it to Modi’s Council of Ministers include Alipurduar MP John Barla, who has been appointed as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs and Dr Subash Sarkar who has been appointed as Minister of State in the Ministry of Education.
For John Barla’s appointment, party leaders said that his stronghold in the tea workers’ community in North Bengal has gotten him the ministerial berth. Barla is also one of the most influential leaders among the tea workers’ union and has had a strong grip over the tea workers’ community in Bengal for a very long time. Barla has also successfully delivered all the seven Assembly segments that falls under this Lok Sabha constituency into the BJP’s kitty.
Party sources said that Dr Subash Sarkar’s elevation into the union ministry comes due to his years of experience in the RSS and his close proximity to the RSS. Sarkar, who is the MP from Bankura, is also a doctor by profession and has worked with the RSS for over three decades. He is believed to be a man of impeccable reputation and a diligent worker.
Sources also said that Sarkar was also one of the frontrunners of the BJP’s CM candidate in Bengal if the party had won the Assembly elections held earlier this year.