Our Bureau
Kolkata
West Bengal is set for a major political change as Suvendu Adhikari has been formally named the next Chief Minister of the state, the BJP’s first ever CM in Bengal. The move comes after the Bharatiya Janata Party won a decisive victory in the recent assembly elections, ending 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule.
The decision was taken at a BJP legislature party meeting in Kolkata on Friday, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced Adhikari’s election as the leader of the BJP legislative party. Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh proposed Adhikari’s name at the meeting, which was also attended by Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi as co‑observer.
The BJP’s win in the assembly polls marked a sharp reversal for Mamata Banerjee, who had been in power since 2011. Adhikari, once a close aide of Banerjee, left the Trinamool Congress in December 2020 and joined the BJP. In the 2021 state elections he defeated her in Nandigram, and in the latest polls he also won the Bhabanipur seat, her traditional stronghold, by a margin of over 15,000 votes.
The new BJP government is expected to have two deputy chief ministers, a post that has not existed in Bengal for about two decades. The last person to hold the deputy chief minister’s post was former CPM leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who served under Jyoti Basu. Possible names for the deputy roles include Agnimitra Paul, who won from Asansol Dakshin, and Shankar Ghosh, the winner from Siliguri; Shah met both leaders in Kolkata to finalise these arrangements.
