Suvendu Adhikari takes oath as the new Bengal CM, pledges to build Sonar Bangla

As Suvendu Adhikari took over as the chief minister of the new Bharatiya Janata Party government of West Bengal on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the day would be forever remembered as the one that ushered in a new chapter of destiny, hope, dignity, and good governance.

Adhikari was sworn in by Governor R N Ravi at a ceremony in the historic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata. Five other newly elected BJP legislators – Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Khudiram Tudu, Ashok Kirtania and Nishith Pramanik – were also sworn in as ministers of the new government.

“He has made a mark as a leader who remained deeply connected to the people and understood the aspirations of the people,” Modi said about Adhikari as he flew from New Delhi to Kolkata in the morning to be present at the ceremony in the Brigade Parade Ground. The prime minister genuflected at the podium as a mark of the BJP’s gratitude to the people of West Bengal for giving the party a historic mandate. “I bow to West Bengal’s Jana Shakti! The people’s blessings are the truest strength of democracy and the noblest source of public resolve,” Modi wrote on X.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Navin and several other saffron stalwarts and the leaders of the party’s allies attended the ceremony. So did the chief ministers and other ministers of several states ruled by the BJP or its allies.

The BJP had a landslide victory in the just-concluded assembly elections in West Bengal, winning 207 of the 293 constituencies. The Trinamool Congress, which was in power since 2011, could win only 80 seats. The Election Commission ordered repolling in the remaining one constituency – Falta in the South 24 Parganas district – for alleged irregularities in a large number of booths. The state assembly has 294 seats.

Adhikari succeeded his former mentor and the TMC supremo, Mamata Banerjee, at the helm of the TMC government. He beat Mamata in her home constituency, Bhabanipur in Kolkata, apart from retaining Nandigram, where he had defeated her in 2021, just a few months after quitting the TMC and joining the BJP.

The new chief minister on Saturday promised good governance, security, and holistic development in West Bengal.

The swearing-in ceremony coincided with the 165^th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Modi and Adhikari paid tribute to the polymath’s portrait on the podium. Adhikari later visited the ancestral residence of Tagore in Jorasanko and paid tribute. “Our goal is to build a Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal),” he said, quoting from Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla (My Golden Bengal)” – now the national anthem of neighbouring Bangladesh. “This government is committed to everyone living in the state. Development, employment generation, safety of women, protection of cultural dignity, and safeguarding democratic rights will be our primary objectives.”

Adhikari was elected the leader of the BJP legislative party on Friday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Navin and several other saffron stalwarts and the leaders of the party’s allies attended the ceremony. So did the chief ministers of several states ruled by the BJP or its allies.

Modi, Shah and Adhikari, as well as other BJP leaders, also paid homage at a makeshift memorial dedicated to over 300 BJP workers and supporters, who had been killed in political violence across West Bengal.

Adhikari was a municipal councillor in Contai in the 1990s. He lost his first assembly election in 2001 but won in 2006.

He helped Mamata organise a movement against the proposed acquisition of farmland by the then Left Front government for a chemical hub in 2006-2007. The movement set the stage for the TMC’s ascent to power in the state in 2011.

Meanwhile, in 2009, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk, defeating Lakshman Seth of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He retained the seat in 2014. In 2016, he returned to state politics, winning Nandigram and becoming a minister in the government led by Mamata.

But the growing role of Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee within the TMC eventually led to the exit of Suvendu, along with many other disgruntled leaders, from the party ahead of the 2021 assembly elections. He emerged as the most prominent face of the BJP in West Bengal over the past five years.

Suvendu’s father, Sisir Adhikari, served as a legislator and a parliamentarian of the TMC, as well as a Union Minister of State.  A few months after Suvendu, Sisir too quit the TMC and joined the BJP in 2021, along with his other sons, Dibyendu and Soumendu, who, too, have been members of the state assembly and the Lok Sabha.