Suvendu Adhikari has become West Bengal’s first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister after the party’s historic victory in the 2026 state assembly elections, ending 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule.
Adhikari was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party on May 8 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He took oath as the state’s ninth chief minister at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground on May 9, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance.
The BJP won 207 of 294 seats, while the Trinamool Congress secured 80. Adhikari defeated outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by 15,105 votes while also retaining his Nandigram seat. He had previously beaten Banerjee in Nandigram during the 2021 elections.
Adhikari, 55, joined the BJP in December 2020 after leaving the Trinamool Congress, where he had served as a minister under Banerjee. Shah said eight proposals at the legislature party meeting all named Adhikari, with no alternate candidate put forward. He now faces the transition from opposition firebrand to administrator in a state with deep political divisions.
Adhikari served as leader of the opposition in the previous assembly and built his profile through protests over post-poll violence allegations. At his oath ceremony, he signaled an intent to govern beyond partisan rhetoric, visiting Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral home in Kolkata shortly after taking office.
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Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/narendra-modi/