India on Monday named former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi as the new high commissioner to Bangladesh, marking the first time the key position in Dhaka has been assigned to a political appointee in several decades.

Dinesh Trivedi, 75, served as railway minister and minister of state for health in the UPA government, reports Hindustan Times.

Trivedi, who had stints in the Congress and Trinamool Congress parties, is expected to take up the assignment shortly, according to an announcement from the external affairs ministry.

The decision to send a seasoned politician with roots in the border state of West Bengal to Dhaka comes at a time when the Indian side has made an outreach to the new government formed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) following the election in February.

Trivedi, 75, served as railway minister and minister of state for health in the UPA government. After representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, he resigned from the Trinamool Congress in 2021 and joined the BJP.

He will succeed Pranay Verma, a career diplomat who was appointed the next ambassador to Belgium and the European Union (EU).

Earlier this month, Bangladesh foreign minister Khalilur Rahman visited India and held talks with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and external affairs minister S Jaishankar. The focus of these meetings was bolstering ties in trade, energy and people-to-people exchanges.

Khalilur also reiterated Bangladesh’s demand to extradite ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, who has lived in self-exile in India since the collapse of her government in August 2024.