Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari gives portfolios to first batch of ministers, keeps key ones with himself like Mamata

WEst Bengal chief government minister Suvendu Adhikari on mon allocated portfolios among the number one pile of his council of ministers, which has quintuplet members who took oath with him last week.Dilip, Agnimitra's portfoliosA government order said senior BJP leader and former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh got the panchayats and rural development department, along with animal resources and agricultural marketing.Agnimitra Paul, who was widely seen as among CM contenders, got the women and child development department, along with social welfare and municipal affairs portfolios.Ashok Kirtania got food and civil supplies and co-operation departments, news agency PTI reported.Kshudiram Tudu is minister for tribal development, backward classes welfare, along with minority affairs and madrasha education.Nisith Pramanik was entrusted with the North Bengal development department along with youth services and sports. Pramanik also served in PM Narendra Modi's cabinet earlier."The rest of the departments will be looked after by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari," the notification read. These include home affairs and finance as the major ones.Expansion imminentGiven the size of the West Bengal legislative assembly, which has 294 seats, and the law capping the size of a state cabinet at 15% of the assembly strength, the government can have up to 44 ministers.The practice of CMs retaining key portfolios is not new to West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, whom Adhikari's BJP displaced after 15 years in the elections held last month, had similarly kept home and health departments under her direct charge following her third-term cabinet expansion in 2021.As for the finance ministry, Mamata's third term was the first time in over four decades that a Bengal CM had personally held the portfolio. It was held before her by her trusted aide Amit Mitra, who served as the state's finance minister for two terms between 2011 and 2021 and, after not contesting the 2021 elections, he was appointed principal chief advisor to the CM on finances.Suvendu Adhikari also served as a minister under Mamata before switching to the BJP six years ago. He held the transport portfilio in Mamata Banerjee's second ministry from 2016, and irrigation and water resources from 2018, before resigning from the cabinet in 2020.He crossed over to the BJP in December 2020, and went on to defeat her in Nandigram in 2021, and again in Bhabanipur in 2026 as the BJP came to power in the state for the first time.