The appointment of West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra as GST Council vice-chairperson is seen as a clever ploy on the part of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to keep 'Didi' hooked to the GST bandwagon, even though it may have upset several BJP leaders. While most BJP-ruled states have passed the GST Bill, the West Bengal Assembly has not. The Bill was on the agenda of the West Bengal Assembly but, at the last moment, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as is her wont, to extract the maximum from the Centre in lieu of her support to the GST, postponed its passage. Jaitley is said to be resisting party pressure to replace Mitra because of the unreliability of Bengal's position. The FM does not want to offend Banerjee at this stage. In December, the government will need the TMC support to pass the finalised GST Bills. Besides, having a deputy chairperson from a non-BJP party may lend additional credibility to the council that includes state FMs and FinMin's officials. Jaitley is the chairman of the council.