Suvendu Adhikari named West Bengal Chief Minister after BJP victory
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Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was formally elected leader of the BJP legislative party in West Bengal on Friday, paving the way for him to become the state’s next Chief Minister.
The decision was announced at a legislature party meeting in Kolkata attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who served as the central observer, and Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, the co-observer.
Senior BJP leader and former state president Dilip Ghosh proposed Adhikari’s name during the meeting. “I announce the name of Suvendu Adhikari elected as Leader of West Bengal BJP Legislative Party,” Amit Shah said.
The BJP’s victory in the Assembly elections ended the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in West Bengal and marked a major political setback for Mamata Banerjee.
Addressing party leaders, Shah said the BJP’s victory reflected public trust in the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The atmosphere that had been created since the Communist era was deepened by Mamata Banerjee, and it was almost impossible to cast your vote there,” Shah said. He also described the incoming administration as “Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s government”.
Adhikari joined the BJP in December 2020 after leaving the Trinamool Congress, where he had been considered a close associate of Banerjee.
He emerged as a key BJP figure in Bengal after defeating Banerjee in the Nandigram Assembly constituency in 2021. In the recent elections, he also won the Bhabanipur seat, considered Banerjee’s political stronghold, by more than 15,000 votes.
