West Bengal’s political landscape witnessed a watershed moment on Saturday as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the state’s chief minister, signaling the dawn of a new saffron era in the eastern state.
Governor R.N. Ravi administered the oath at a grand ceremony held at Brigade Parade Grounds, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP president Nitin Nabin. Senior leaders of the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including chief ministers from several states, were also present.
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Elaborate security arrangements were deployed across Kolkata, with a multi-layered apparatus comprising central forces and state police personnel ensuring safety at the venue and key city locations. Thousands of BJP supporters from north Bengal and neighbouring states such as Jharkhand flocked to the city, waving party flags and raising slogans before proceeding toward Brigade Parade Grounds.
The swearing-in capped BJP’s emphatic victory in the recent Assembly elections, in which the party won 207 of the 294 seats, ending the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which was reduced to just 80 seats. Adhikari also registered a high-profile triumph by defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her Bhabanipur stronghold while retaining his Nandigram seat.
Once a poster boy of the Trinamool Congress and a prominent figure in Banerjee’s anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram, Adhikari switched to the BJP in 2019—a move that reshaped West Bengal’s political dynamics and catapulted him to prominence.
Hailing from Purba Medinipur district, Adhikari also becomes the first chief minister in over five decades to rise to the state’s top office from outside Kolkata’s traditional political establishment. |
