5 min readKolkataMay 9, 2026 04:30 AM IST
Hours after being unanimously elected the leader of the BJP Legislature Party on Friday, West Bengal Chief Minister-elect Suvendu Adhikari met Governor R N Ravi and staked claim to form the first BJP government in the state.
Adhikari will take the oath of office at the Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday morning, most likely along with two Deputy CMs, said sources in the Raj Bhavan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CMs of several NDA-ruled states are scheduled to attend the ceremony.
Hours earlier, senior BJP leader and former state unit president Dilip Ghosh proposed Adhikari’s name during the Legislature Party meeting, saying he was the face of the BJP’s expansion in Bengal and the best placed to lead the government. After the proposal received the unanimous support of the MLAs, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the party’s central observer, announced Adhikari’s election as the Legislature Party leader.
“After a 100-year ideological journey, the BJP is in power everywhere from Gangotri to Gangasagar,” Shah told party MLAs and workers after the meeting. “When I had just become the BJP president in 2014, our current state president Samik Bhattacharya opened our account by winning a by-election (in Basirhat Dakshin). In 2016, we had 3 seats. In 2021, we had 77, and now in 2026, we have 207 seats, and we are going to get a CM.”
“The BJP promises the people of Bengal and the country that we will identify and remove every infiltrator from India. And let me say from this stage that people who call this polarisation are mistaken. This is not about polarisation. This is about national security,” Shah said.
“Friends, this victory is not merely about the BJP’s expansion or its ideology. Nor is it only about the BJP or the NDA forming a government in its 21st state. The biggest importance of this victory is that it plugs one of the biggest holes in India’s national security. Now infiltration and cow smuggling will become impossible in West Bengal,” said the Home Minister.
Launching a broadside against the previous government led by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shah said, “Under Mamata ji’s 15 years of rule, administration became thoroughly politicised, and politics became criminalised. Criminals themselves became politicians. There was no possibility of good governance. Goondaism, violence, syndicates, corruption, and cut money — all these have become a curse on Bengal. Within months of our new CM taking charge, all this will end.”
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Promising a “double-engine government”, Shah said Bengal’s development had been stalled because central schemes and funds were blocked for political reasons. The minister also attempted to project the BJP’s Bengal victory as a mandate for democratic normalcy after decades of politically linked violence.
“I appeal to all political parties, elections are a celebration of democracy. Why should violence occur in them? Violence must end across India, and the BJP has a special responsibility in this regard. Let us take a resolution and appeal to all parties that there should be no violence in the polls. It will be the BJP government’s responsibility that there should not be a single incident of violence or malpractices in elections,” Shah said.
In his speech, Adhikari outlined the priorities of the incoming government. “Bhoy (fear) is out and, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji has said, bharosa (trust) is in,” he said amid loud cheers from party MLAs and supporters, adding that the government would function on the principle of collective leadership. “The people of Bengal have given us a historic mandate. We will fulfil all the promises made in the BJP’s poll manifesto in Bengal,” he said.
Adhikari also emphasised the need for cooperation between the Centre and the BJP government in the state. “Let the Centre and the state work together to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Bengal,” he said.
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The CM-elect announced inquiries into allegations of corruption and crimes against women during the TMC years. “A commission headed by a retired judge will investigate all corruption cases. Commissions will also probe into incidents of atrocities against women and the guilty will be punished,” he said.
Later, accompanied by several top leaders of the state BJP, including Dilip Ghosh, Locket Chatterjee, and Tapas Roy, Adhikari reached the Lok Bhavan to meet Governor Ravi.
