New Delhi (25.04.2026): The appointment of former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi as the Next Ambassador of India to Bangladesh is still afresh in the minds of people and just four days before the second phase of polling and around 9 days before the counting of votes of West Bengal Assembly elections, an outgoing BJP MLA and economist Ashok Kumar Lahiri has been appointed as the next Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog by the Cabinet Secretariate. Apparently, all these appointments are being linked to the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal. Lahiri will replace Suman Bery as VP of the Government Think Tank.

Former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba (Retd IAS: 1982: JH) was appointed full-time member in March 2025. The government has also appointed a few more full-time members taking it to five which included – Rajiv Gauba, Prof K V Raju, Prof Gobardhan Das, Prof Abhay Karandikar and Dr M Srinivas -- in the government Think Tank. Prime Minister of India is its ex-officio Chairman. 

A member of the current West Bengal assembly from Balurghat — but not contesting the ongoing elections — Lahiri has served as the 12th Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to the Government of India. The BJP is in a pitched battle with the ruling TMC of Mamata Banerjee, so such appointments are to reap political benefits.

Lahiri, an alumnus of the economics department at Presidency University, Kolkata, 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 had stints with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as a consultant and senior economist, respectively, his author profile with the publisher Penguin states.

Rajiv Gauba (Retd IAS: 1982: JH) is a former Cabinet Secretary. Gobardhan Das is a scientist and former BJP member who unsuccessfully contested the 2021 West Bengal polls from the Purbasthali Uttar constituency. He is a prominent immunologist formerly at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who served as director of IISER Bhopal. Dr M Srinivas is a medical professional.

Ashok Lahiri was appointed Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (CEA) by the PM-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in December 2002, when BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM. He demitted that office in June 2007, serving around three quarters of his stint under the Congress-led UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.