After 15 years of uninterrupted Trinamool Congress rule, West Bengal is on the cusp of a historic political transformation. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has been formally announced as the state’s next Chief Minister, with his swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 9 at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, one of the city’s most iconic public spaces. The announcement was made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the presence of newly elected BJP MLAs and senior party leaders, marking the culmination of a long and fiercely contested political battle.
Adhikari’s rise to the top job is a story that has been years in the making. A former minister in the Mamata Banerjee government serving as Transport Minister as recently as 2016 to 2020 he resigned from his ministerial post in November 2020, quit the Trinamool Congress in December of that year, and joined the BJP, quickly establishing himself as the party’s most prominent face in the state. His political stature grew enormously in 2021 when he defeated Mamata Banerjee herself in the Nandigram constituency a result that sent shockwaves through Bengal’s political establishment. In the 2026 assembly elections, he went a step further, contesting simultaneously from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur Banerjee’s own stronghold and winning both by commanding margins. The Bhabanipur victory, by over 15,000 votes, was particularly symbolic. The last time an incumbent Chief Minister was defeated on their home turf by a candidate contesting two seats simultaneously was in 1967.
“This is a historic victory, a victory for Bengal,” Adhikari declared after the results, holding his winning certificate outside the counting centre in Bhabanipur.
The BJP’s win ends what many observers are calling an extraordinary chapter in Indian state politics. Mamata Banerjee, who had governed Bengal since 2011 after dismantling the Left Front’s 34-year reign, faced a dramatically weakened opposition going into 2026. Her party’s handling of law and order, allegations of post-poll violence across multiple election cycles, and an increasingly centralised style of governance had eroded public confidence in parts of the state. The BJP, meanwhile, spent years building its grassroots presence, consolidating its support base across districts and making deep inroads into the TMC’s traditional vote banks.
Yet the transition of power has not been smooth. Even as the BJP was celebrating its historic win, West Bengal was rattled by a chilling incident. Chandranath Rath, Adhikari’s personal secretary, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Madhyamgram area of North 24 Parganas district. Rath, who had served as executive assistant to Adhikari during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition, was targeted on a public road and sustained multiple bullet injuries before being rushed to hospital, where he succumbed. Senior police officers were deployed to the area, and an investigation was launched, though the motive behind the killing was not immediately established.
The murder triggered a fresh round of political unrest in a state where post-election violence has long been a grim tradition. Reports of clashes, vandalism, and attacks on party workers from both the BJP and the TMC emerged from several districts in the days following the result. Multiple fatalities were reported across Howrah, North 24 Parganas, and Murshidabad, with both parties trading blame and calling for peace while accusing the other of orchestrating the violence.
For Adhikari, who built much of his political identity on highlighting law and order failures under the Banerjee government, the violence in the immediate aftermath of his party’s victory presents an early and uncomfortable test. His government will face pressure both from within his own party and from the wider public to demonstrate that the cycle of political retribution that has defined Bengal’s election seasons can finally be broken.
The swearing-in at Brigade Parade Ground carries its own weight of history. The same ground has witnessed countless political rallies, including many by Mamata Banerjee herself. That Suvendu Adhikari will now take his oath as Chief Minister underlines just how completely the state’s political map has been redrawn.
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