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PM Modi bows to crowd at Bengal BJP government swearing-in: ‘People’s blessings are the truest’
Several senior BJP leaders attended the oath ceremony of Suvendu Adhikari as the new Bengal CM.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday greeted people with a full bow on stage during the swearing-in ceremony of the new West Bengal government in Kolkata. The ceremony was the onset of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first government in Bengal, with BJP legislative party leader Suvendu Adhikari taking oath as the state’s ninth chief minister at Brigade Parade Ground.
“I bow to West Bengal’s Jana Shakti,” Modi wrote on X. “The people’s blessings are the truest strength of democracy and the noblest source of public resolve.” A video shared online showed the PM bowing before the gathering from the stage.
Several senior BJP leaders attended the ceremony. This included Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan. Chief ministers from BJP-ruled states, including Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Tripura’s Manik Saha, Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami and Delhi’s Rekha Gupta, were also present.
“The BJP government has arrived - a government for every person of Bengal,” Amit Shah wrote on X, alongside a video of Adhikari taking oath.
Who took oath alongside Adhikari
During the programme, Modi also met 98-year-old senior BJP worker Makhanlal Sarkar and sought his blessings. Later, the PM and Adhikari paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 165th birth anniversary according to the Bengali calendar.
Along with Adhikari, five BJP MLAs took oath as ministers in the new West Bengal government. The first cabinet includes senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, BJP Mahila Morcha leader Agnimitra Paul, North 24 Parganas MLA Ashok Kirtania, tribal leader Kshudiram Tudu and former Union minister Nisith Pramanik. Governor RN Ravi administered the oath.
West Bengal elections 2026
The BJP won the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections. The saffron party secured 207 seats and ended the Trinamool Congress government’s 15-year rule in the state. The TMC won 80 seats.
Adhikari was one of the main figures of the election after defeating Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by more than 15,000 votes, as per Election Commission data. He also retained the Nandigram assembly seat, where he secured over 1.27 lakh votes, according to the EC.
After taking oath, Adhikari said the new government would function through “collective leadership” and that Cabinet ministers would be involved in decision-making.
Adhikari, once a senior Trinamool leader and a key figure in the Nandigram movement that helped bring the TMC to power in 2011, joined the BJP after differences with Banerjee widened in recent years. He later became one of the BJP’s main faces in the state.
