Subhendu Adhikari is the new Chief Minister of West Bengal

Photo: Collected

News Desk: India’s BJP has announced Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal.

On Friday (8 May), Union Home Minister Amit Shah officially declared Suvendu Adhikari’s name, paving the way for the first-ever BJP-led government in the state. After securing a landslide victory in the recently concluded Assembly elections, winning 207 of 294 seats, the saffron camp took this decision.

However, after the election, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee had raised allegations of irregularities against the Election Commission, questioning the fairness and neutrality of the polls.

From the very beginning of the election campaign, BJP leaders repeatedly promised that West Bengal’s Chief Minister would be a local leader. In line with that commitment, the party’s central leadership ultimately placed its trust in Suvendu Adhikari.

Suvendu Adhikari’s political rise reflects a long story of changing power dynamics in Bengal. Once a close associate of Mamata Banerjee, he played a leading role in the 2007 Nandigram movement, which eventually contributed to ending the Left Front’s 34-year rule. Later, by joining the BJP ahead of the 2021 elections, he created a new political equation in the state.

After the victory, an elated Suvendu told his supporters that just as he had been part of the “change” process in 2011, he was now one of the key architects of this “real change” as well.

Source: India Today.