Kolkata: BJP legislature party leader Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal on Saturday, heading the first BJP government in the state.
Governor RN Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Adhikari at a grand ceremony held at the Brigade Parade Grounds here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states, and senior BJP leaders.
The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in the state.
The oath ceremony was conducted on Saturday, which coincides with the birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore as per the Bengali calendar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers from other BJP-ruled states, some important members of the Union Cabinet, and several top Central BJP leaders were present at the ceremony.
Adhikari played a key role in the Trinamool Congress’s Nandigram stir, which was among the key reasons attributed for the end of the 24-year Left Front regime in West Bengal and the beginning of the Trinamool Congress government. Differences surfaced in 2019 and he finally quit the TMC in 2021, later going on to lead the BJP’s charge against the government led by Banerjee, who once considered him a close aide.
Adhikari said that he will run the new state administration on the basis of “collective leadership”, instead of shifting all his decisions on the other Cabinet members. Even after officially becoming the former chief minister, Banerjee’s Facebook and X accounts carries the tag of “Founder Chairperson All India Trinamool Congress. Honourable Chief Minister, West Bengal”.
