He will take oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds on Saturday, May 9
KOLKATA / NEW YORK (TIP): Newly elected MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal unanimously elected Suvendu Adhikari as leader of their legislature party on Friday, May 8, 2026. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who presided over the meeting, said all proposals were received in favor of Mr. Adhikari.
Accompanied by several leaders of the BJP’s State unit, including Dilip Ghosh, Locket Chatterjee, and Tapas Roy, the Chief Minister-designate reached Lok Bhavan and met Governor R.N. Ravi to stake claim to form the government. The BJP had won 207 seats in the 294-member Legislative Assembly while the Trinamool Congress was reduced to 80 seats.
Mr. Adhikari will take oath as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Chief Ministers of the BJP and National Democratic Alliance-ruled States will participate in the swearing-in.
Amidst cheers from the MLAs-elect, Mr. Adhikari said: “Bhoi [fear] is out, and as Narendra Modiji has said, bharosa [faith] is in. “We will not be satisfied with 46% votes and in the next election, we will have to bring 60% of the people with us. We will ensure the security of women, instill nationalism and make West Bengal the country’s cultural capital again,” he added.
Mr. Adhikari, 57, contested and won from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the recently concluded Assembly election. He had defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by a margin of 15,115 votes.
Hailing from Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, Mr. Adhikari had served as a Cabinet Minister in Ms. Banerjee’s government from 2016 to 2020. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk in the 2009 and 2014 elections. Mr. Adhikari defected to the BJP from Trinamool in December 2020 and served as the Leader of the Opposition from 2021 to 2026. In the 2021 Assembly election, he had defeated Ms. Banerjee in Nandigram by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Mr. Adhikari comes from a family of politicians. His father Sishir Adhikari served as Union Minister of State for Rural Development during the second United Progressive Alliance government and was the MP of the Kanthi Lok Sabha seat between 2009 and 2024.
Mr. Adhikari rose to political prominence in 2007 during the fight against forcible land acquisition at Nandigram when the Left Front government was in power. He had extended his influence across south Bengal and central Bengal both during his stint with the Trinamool and as the Leader of the Opposition.
His elevation also marks a significant development in West Bengal politics as the State will get a Chief Minister from its rural heartland after almost 55 years. The previous three Chief Ministers of the State — Mamata Banerjee, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Jyoti Basu — all hailed from Kolkata.
When addressing the MLAs-elect, Mr. Adhikari said that his first task will be to fulfil the guarantees announced by Mr. Modi during the election campaign.
The Chief Minister-designate also announced plans for probes into allegations of corruption and crimes against women during the previous Trinamool regime. “A commission headed by a retired judge will investigate all corruption cases. Commissions will also probe incidents of atrocities against women and the guilty will be punished,” Mr. Adhikari said.
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