Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Dinesh Trivedi has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Bangladesh, the government announced on Monday, a rare instance of a political appointee being chosen to head a key diplomatic mission traditionally led by career diplomats.The Tribune had on April 19 exclusively reported about Trivedi’s impending appointment. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the 75-year-old politician-turned diplomat is expected to take up the assignment shortly.A seasoned parliamentarian, Trivedi brings decades of political and administrative experience to the role. Born in New Delhi in 1950, he holds an MBA from the University of Texas and is also a trained pilot, with an early career spanning business and aviation before entering public life.His appointment comes at a time when New Delhi is seeking to recalibrate ties with Dhaka following recent political and strategic shifts, giving added weight to the government’s decision to deploy a political heavyweight rather than a career diplomat to a sensitive post in the neighbourhood.Trivedi has had a long and varied parliamentary career, serving multiple terms in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. He represented West Bengal’s Barrackpore constituency in the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2019 and earlier served in the Rajya Sabha from both Gujarat and West Bengal. He held key portfolios as Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare (2009–2011) and later as Cabinet Minister for Railways (2011–2012). His tenure as Railway Minister was marked by a push for modernisation and structural reforms, including attempts to depoliticise fare-setting.Trivedi’s political journey has traversed multiple parties–from the Congress in the 1980s to the Janata Dal in the 1990s and later the Trinamool Congress, where he was a founding member and a close associate of Mamata Banerjee. He joined the BJP in 2021 after resigning from the Trinamool.