Our Bureau
Kolkata
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced that its new government in West Bengal will take oath on May 9, coinciding with Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya confirmed the date, calling it a historic moment for the state following the party’s sweeping victory in the 2026 Assembly elections.
Bhattacharya said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had signaled this timeline during his final campaign rally in Barrackpore, stating he would “come back” for the BJP’s oath-taking ceremony after results on May 4. The BJP secured over 200 seats in the 294-member Assembly, reducing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to around 80 seats, with BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by over 15,000 votes in Bhabanipur.
The choice of May 9, or Pochishe Boishakh (25th Baishakh), carries deep cultural symbolism in Bengal, where Tagore’s poetry, Rabindra Sangeet, and humanist ideals define the state’s identity. PM Modi invoked Tagore’s famous lines from “Where the Mind is Without Fear” while addressing party workers in New Delhi, vowing to create a Bengal “where the head is held high.”
Sources close to the government formation process say the date marks a “new beginning.” Senior Election Commission officials S B Joshi and Sujit Kumar Mishra arrived in Kolkata today to hand over the gazette notification to Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, who will brief Governor RN Ravi on May 6. The Governor is expected to ask Mamata Banerjee to resign and continue as caretaker Chief Minister until the swearing-in.
Bhattacharya urged responsible celebrations amid reports of post-poll vandalism, condemning such acts and warning of party expulsions. He credited migrant laborers and overseas supporters from Toronto to Silicon Valley for the win, emphasizing a shift beyond regime change to restore social pluralism under a “double engine government.”
This landmark event ends over four decades of Left and TMC rule, promising a transformed political culture in the state.
