Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated the outgoing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in this election, will take over as the next CM, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) confirmed on Friday.
The decision to appoint Adhikari as leader of the BJP legislature party was taken at a meeting in Kolkata attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and senior party leaders.
Adhikari's swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place on Saturday, marking a historic moment for the BJP in West Bengal after the party secured a breakthrough victory in the state assembly elections.
Suvendu Adhikari was the Leader of Opposition in the now-dissolved West Bengal assembly. In the elections held last month, he retained his incumbent seat of Nandigram, while defeating Banerjee—the Trinamol Congress supremo—from her home turf of Bhabhanipur.
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Once among Mamata Banerjee's closest aides, Suvendu Adhikari played a key role in the 2007 Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement that helped propel the Trinamool Congress to power in West Bengal. However, widening differences within the party, especially amid the growing prominence of Abhishek Banerjee, led to Adhikari's dramatic exit from the TMC in 2020 and his switch to the BJP.
Adhikari's political stature rose sharply after he defeated Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 Nandigram Assembly election, handing the Chief Minister one of the biggest setbacks of her career. Five years later, he repeated the feat in the 2026 Assembly polls, defeating Banerjee again from Bhabanipur, widely regarded as her political bastion.
In the final vote tally, Banerjee secured 58,349 votes, while Adhikari registered a surprise victory with 73,463 votes. In the 2021 election, Adhikari had defeated Mamata in Nandigram by a margin of 1,956 votes..
Known for his aggressive campaigning style and strong grassroots connect, Adhikari has been credited with rebuilding the BJP's organisational base in Bengal and expanding the saffron party's footprint across the state.
Hailing from the influential Adhikari political family in Purba Medinipur, Suvendu is the son of Sisir Adhikari and has previously served as a Lok Sabha MP from Tamluk as well as a minister in the West Bengal government.
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