Suvendu Adhikari named West Bengal's first BJP chief minister

Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was formally elected leader of the BJP legislature party on Friday, clearing the way for him to become the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of West Bengal after the party’s landmark Assembly election victory.

Adhikari’s name was proposed by senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh during the legislature party meeting held at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in New Town.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who attended the meeting as the BJP’s central observer, and Mohan Charan Majhi, the co-observer, were present during the proceedings.

The development marks the end of the All India Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in West Bengal and one of the biggest political setbacks for outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP secured a sweeping victory in the recently concluded Assembly elections, winning 207 seats in the 294-member House and establishing itself as the dominant political force in the state.

From TMC strategist to BJP’s ‘giantkiller’
Adhikari’s elevation caps a dramatic political rise that reshaped Bengal politics over the past five years.

Once considered one of Mamata Banerjee’s closest aides and a key architect of the TMC’s organisational expansion in rural Bengal, Adhikari switched to the BJP in December 2020 and rapidly emerged as the saffron party’s most aggressive campaigner in the state.

He earned the “giantkiller” tag after defeating Banerjee in the high-voltage Nandigram contest in the 2021 Assembly polls.

In the 2026 election, he further consolidated his position by retaining Nandigram and winning from Bhabanipur, long regarded as Mamata Banerjee’s political stronghold.

Within BJP circles, Adhikari’s victory in Bhabanipur has been viewed as both symbolically and politically decisive.

Party leaders cited his sustained campaign against the TMC, his grassroots organisational network and his electoral success against Banerjee as key reasons behind the leadership choice.

Swearing-in on May 9
Adhikari will take oath as chief minister on May 9 at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Nabin and chief ministers of NDA-ruled states are expected to attend the ceremony.

Governor R N Ravi dissolved the Assembly on Thursday, paving the way for the formation of the new government.

For the BJP, the victory marks its biggest breakthrough in West Bengal, a state where it remained politically marginal for decades before emerging as the principal challenger to the TMC under Modi and Shah’s leadership.