Outgoing West Bengal BJP MLA and economist Ashok Kumar Lahiri has been selected as the next vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, people familiar with the matter told HT on Friday. This will make him the de facto head of the government think tank with the Prime Minister virtually assuming the helm. He will replace Suman Berry.
In addition, Gobardhan Das, who is also a Bengali, is set to become a new member of the policy.
The selection of these two names for the position – the expected official appointments – comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party is locked in a fierce battle with the ruling Transitional Military Council led by Mamata Banerjee in Bengal.
The current Bengal Assembly member from Balurghat – but not contesting the ongoing elections – Lahiri has served as the 12th Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India.
Who is Ashok Lahiri?
Lahiri is an alumnus of the Department of Economics at Presidency University, Kolkata, and has held research, teaching or leadership positions at the Delhi School of Economics, the Asian Development Bank, Bandhan Bank, and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
He has also worked at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as a consultant and chief economist, respectively, according to his profile with publisher Penguin.
Who is Gobardhan Das?
Gobardhan Das is a scholar and former BJP member who unsuccessfully contested the 2021 West Bengal elections from Purbasthali Uttar constituency. He is a prominent immunologist who was previously working at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (JNU) and served as Director of IISER Bhopal.
Who will replace Lahiri?
The current Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog is Suman Biri and hence holds the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. Perry, a political economist and research director, assumed leadership of NITI Aayog in May 2022. At the time of his appointment, he was a global fellow in the Asia Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington; He is a non-resident fellow at the Bruegel Foundation for Economic Policy Research in Brussels. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, New Delhi.
Lahiri’s tenure as CEA
Ashok Lahiri was appointed Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India (CEA) by the Prime Minister-led Cabinet Appointments Committee in December 2002, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party was Prime Minister.
He resigned from office in June 2007, and served about three-quarters of his term under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government led by Manmohan Singh.
