BJP legislative party elects Suvendu Adhikari as leader
Suvendu Adhikari was on Friday elected as the legislative party leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, paving the way for him to become the state’s first BJP Chief Minister.
The announcement came after a key meeting of BJP’s newly elected MLAs in Kolkata, attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya.
Adhikari will now take oath as Chief Minister at a grand ceremony scheduled for Saturday at 11 am at Kolkata’s Parade Ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Union ministers and several NDA chief ministers are expected to attend the event.
Adhikari’s rise in Bengal politics has been dramatic. Once considered one of Mamata Banerjee’s closest lieutenants in the All India Trinamool Congress, he switched to the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections and quickly emerged as the saffron party’s strongest face in the state.
In the 2021 elections, Adhikari defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in one of Bengal’s most closely watched political battles. In the 2026 elections, he again challenged Banerjee — this time from Bhabanipur — and defeated her by more than 15,000 votes.
According to Election Commission data, Adhikari secured 73,917 votes in Bhabanipur against Banerjee’s 58,812.
A five-time MLA and two-time Lok Sabha MP, Adhikari first entered the Bengal Assembly in 2006 from Kanthi Dakshin and later shifted to Nandigram, which became his political stronghold.
The BJP scripted history in the 2026 Bengal Assembly elections by winning 207 out of 294 seats, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in the state. The TMC was reduced to 80 seats, while Congress and AJUP won two seats each.
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