Suvendu Adhikari is set to take oath on Saturday, May 9, as the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister of West Bengal. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Brigade Parade Ground.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, several Union ministers, and chief ministers from NDA-ruled states are expected to attend the event.
Amit Shah Announces Adhikari as BJP Legislature Party Leader
The announcement was formally made on Friday after a meeting of newly elected BJP legislators in Kolkata, chaired by Amit Shah.
Shah said the process to elect the BJP legislature party leader was completed unanimously.
“A total of eight proposals were received. In all the proposals, there was just one name,” Shah said during the meeting.
He added, “Enough time was given for any proposal for a second name. But no second name was proposed. So, I proposed the name of Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal.”
BJP Forms Government in Bengal for First Time
The BJP secured a historic victory in the recently concluded Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on May 4. The party ended the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee.
This will be the first BJP-led government in West Bengal since Independence.
The West Bengal Assembly was formally dissolved on May 7 as preparations began for the formation of the new government.
Adhikari Defeats Mamata Banerjee Again
Suvendu Adhikari contested and won from both the Nandigram constituency in East Midnapore and the Bhabanipur constituency in Kolkata.
In Bhabanipur, he defeated Mamata Banerjee by more than 15,000 votes.
Adhikari had first earned the “giant killer” image in the 2021 Assembly elections after defeating Banerjee in Nandigram, a politically symbolic contest that transformed Bengal politics.
With his second major victory over Banerjee, Adhikari has now emerged as the BJP’s strongest political face in the state and the unanimous choice to lead the party’s first government in Bengal.
