Thirtyfour, 39, 41, 43: the names of the four BJP MPs from Bengal – Subhas Sarkar, Shantanu Thakur, John Barla and Nisith Pramanik-- tipped to be inducted into the Narendra Modi ministry at the Centre on Wednesday evening were as placed in this order in a list of 43 new inductees that was doing the rounds of television news channles and news portals.

The induction of the four on Wednesday is an indication that the BJP’s central leadership has not given up on its hopes from Bengal. It has the tough task of retaining the 19 seats it won in 2019 in the next Lok Sabha polls as well as wrest a few from the Trinamul.

Pramanik, Barla and Sarkar are being rewarded for the BJP's good performance in the Assembly segments in their Lok Sabha constituencies.

Thakur’s caste identity made him indispensable in the Bengal BJP. A representative of the Matua community, Thakur is believed to have held sway on the two crore members of the community, spread all over the state. Since 2019, the community has moved onwards to the BJP from the Trinamul.

Since 2019, the two MPs holding junior ranks in Union ministries were Babul Supriyo and Debasree Chowdhury, with portfolios of environment and women & child development, respectively. Both were asked to submit their resignations earlier in the day on Wednesday.

The BJP had fared miserably in the Assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituencies that the two represent, Asansol and Raigunj. Supriyo also contested from the Tollygunge Assembly seat and lost. In both the constituencies, BJP could win only two seats each.

The 2019 Lok Sabha poll results gave high hopes to the BJP in Bengal, which despite bagging the highest number of seats it ever had won in the state, was nowhere near the majority mark to pose a serious threat to Mamata Banerjee's chief ministership.

Since the election results were announced, the Bengal BJP has been speaking in different voices. On the one hand is state president Dilip Ghosh , who is at loggerheads with legislature party leader Suvendu Adhikari. Despite being a turncoat, Adhikari has managed to cement his position in his new party after defeating Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram. Adhikari has been working on his own in the party.

BJP’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijaywargiya is staying away from the state since its once-prized catch Mukul Roy switched to the Trinamul after becoming an MLA on a BJP ticket.

The decision to drop the two junior ministers from the Union council of ministers was music for chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

"Did Babul-Debasree harm BJP? Why have they fallen out of favour?" she asked at the state Assembly.