Suvendu Adhikari has been elected as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party in West Bengal. He is set to be the first BJP chief minister in the state.
It was 2007. A young man in a simple kurta stood in the dust of Nandigram, speaking into a handheld microphone. Next to him stood the Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee. At that time, Suvendu Adhikari was the driver of her revolution. Today, he sits in the leader’s chair at the State Secretariat, having dismantled the very political machine he helped build.
Adhikari was elected on Friday as president Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the leader of the legislative party in West Bengal. He will be sworn in as the state’s first BJP chief minister on Saturday at the Brigade Parade Ground.
This comes on the heels of a high-stakes election in which the BJP won 208 of the 294 seats in the state, effectively ending a 15-year TMC era.
Adhikari’s path to the CM seat
The road to the secretariat began on April 2, when Adhikari filed his nomination for the Kolkata post Bhabanipur seat. During a roadshow, Union Home Minister Amit Shah pointed out that while Adhikari originally wanted to contest from Nandigram only, the party asked him to take the fight to Bhabanipur to defeat Mamata Banerjee in her home turf. Shah predicted that victory in Bhabanipur would ensure victory at the state level.
By the evening of May 4, the numbers had proven the strategy correct. Adhikari defeated Banerjee by 15,000 votes, according to Election Commission data.
Five facts about Suvendu Adhikari
- Suvendu was born on December 15, 1970 in Purba Medinipur, the son of veteran leader Sisir Kumar Adhikari. He began his legislative career in 2006 and served two terms in the Lok Sabha before joining the state government in 2016.
2. For years, he has been known as an “all-weather, all-terrain” asset for TMC. He was the architect who expanded the party’s base into the Left-dominated Jangalmahal district and later dismantled Congress strongholds in Malda and Murshidabad. and recognizing its influence, Mamata Banerjee appointed him as the state transport minister.
3. His political career was not without controversy; He was interrogated by the CBI in 2014 in connection with the Sarada Ponzi scheme and was linked to the Narada sting operation in 2014. He denied the charges and termed them politically motivated.
4. Later, Adhikari resigned from the TMC and Assembly government in December 2020 to join the BJP. His defection was linked to the growing rivalry with the party leadership. In the 2021 state elections, he defeated his former mentor in Nandigram by 1,956 votes. Although the TMC retained the mandate at the time, the victory made Adhikari the leader of the opposition. Over the next few years, despite facing nearly 300 criminal cases, 15 of which were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2025, he continued to lead aggressive campaigns across the state.
5. Suvendu Adhikari holds a Master of Arts degree from Rabindra Bharati University. He served as Chairman of Contai Cooperative Bank and Vidyasagar Central Cooperative Bank. He was removed from his posts after switching to the BJP. He is a sports enthusiast and has a special interest in football and cricket.
Election strategy 2026
in In the 2026 elections, Adhikari is contesting from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur. Throughout the campaign, the party shifted its focus towards Hindu unification, specifically targeting 70.54% of the population and addressing concerns about demographic changes and infiltration.
The BJP has gained ground even in areas with high Muslim populations like Malda and Murshidabad, according to EC data.
Anita Goswami is a Senior Content Producer at Hindustan Times, where she primarily covers Indian and international news. With four years of experience in the field, she has led coverage of Indian general elections, Assembly elections, and national polls in the US, Canada, Bangladesh and Nepal. Its reports cover world wars and major events, including Operation Sindoor, the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, and the Mahakumbh Mela. It verifies the facts and uses clear sources to ensure the accuracy of the reports. As a former Editor-in-Chief at Storytailors, she has managed teams to produce high-quality content for networks such as NDTV, Profit, CNBC-TV18, Upstox and News18. Her work has appeared on NDTV, Meaww and Global Pulse. Throughout her tenure, Anita has collaborated with and received mentoring from leading industry experts. When she’s not reading, Anita can be found outside or at a bakery. Areas of interest: Indian political history, international elections, historical policy analysis, global conflicts, cultural events, Formula 1, art, media ethics, reporting on social and political change over time.Read more
