Adhikari was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Friday after a meeting of newly elected BJP MLAs and senior leaders
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the new chief minister of West Bengal on Saturday, days after the party achieved a historic win in the state, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15 years of rule.
The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders from the BJP. The ceremony was symbolically planned for May 9 to mark the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
Adhikari was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Friday after a meeting of newly elected BJP MLAs and senior leaders, formally sealing the BJP’s emphatic capture of power in Bengal in the assembly polls.
Apart from being chosen for the chief minister’s post, Adhikari also defeated the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee from her bastion in Bhabanipur.
Why this win matter for BJP?
The elevation of 55-year-old Adhikari, once Mamata Banerjee’s closest political aide and organisational troubleshooter, represents not merely a change of government but the culmination of a dramatic political rupture that has reshaped Bengal’s political landscape over the past five years.
The BJP won 207 out of 237 seats in Bengal, reducing TMC to double digits at 80 seats. With this victory, the party has expanded its footprint in eastern India, with West Bengal being a tough nut to crack.
The rise of Suvendu
The victory, therefore, carries ideological, organisational and emotional significance for the saffron leadership, which had invested enormous political capital in the state over the past decade.
For Adhikari, the moment marks the culmination of a turbulent political journey that traversed the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and finally the BJP, transforming him from Banerjee’s trusted lieutenant into her fiercest political challenger.
The son of former Union minister Sisir Adhikari, the 55-year-old leader began his political career in the Congress’s student wing Chhatra Parishad during the peak of Left dominance in Bengal politics.
With inputs from agencies
First Published:
May 09, 2026, 11:39 IST
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