Ex-IAS Officer Subrata Gupta Appointed Bengal CM’s Advisor
New BJP government reshuffles Chief Minister’s Office after Suvendu Adhikari takes oath
- Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta named advisor to Bengal CM
- IAS officer Shantanu Bala appointed private secretary to CM
- Appointments announced after BJP forms first Bengal government
- Suvendu Adhikari defeats Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur seat
GG News Bureau
Kolkata, 10th May: The newly formed BJP government in West Bengal on Saturday appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
The appointment was announced through an official notification issued shortly after Adhikari took oath as the state’s ninth Chief Minister.
According to the notification, Gupta, a 1990-batch IAS officer, had recently been appointed by the Election Commission during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted ahead of the Assembly elections.
Officials said Gupta’s administrative experience is expected to assist the new government in policy coordination and governance-related matters.
In another notification, the BJP government appointed IAS officer Shantanu Bala as the Chief Minister’s private secretary.
Bala, a 2017-batch IAS officer, was previously serving as Additional District Magistrate of South 24 Parganas district.
Officials described the appointments as part of a wider restructuring of the Chief Minister’s Office following the change in government.
Both officers have been directed to assume their new responsibilities immediately in “public interest”, according to the notifications.
BJP Forms First Government in Bengal
The appointments came on the same day Adhikari took oath as West Bengal’s first BJP Chief Minister, ending the All India Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in the state.
Along with Adhikari, BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Kshudiram Tudu and Nisith Pramanik also took oath as ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony in Kolkata was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Chief Ministers including Manik Saha, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Rekha Gupta and Pushkar Singh Dhami were also present.
The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, while the Trinamool Congress secured 80 seats.
Adhikari defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency by over 15,000 votes and also retained the Nandigram seat.
