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Suvendu Adhikari to be Bengal’s first BJP CM; elected legislature party chief
Amit Shah said Suvendu Adhikari was declared the leader of the BJP legislature party after all eight proposals suggested his name
Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday declared Suvendu Adhikari as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) legislature party in West Bengal at a meeting of the party’s 207 MLAs in Kolkata, clearing the way for his elevation as chief minister of the state’s first BJP government since Independence.
“A meeting of our West Bengal legislature party was held. The BJP national president nominated me and Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi, as central observers. An election has been concluded. We received nearly eight proposals and all of them suggested the same name. We also gave time for a second name but none came. So, I declare Suvendu Adhikari the head of the Bengal legislature party,” Shah said.
Adhikari, who defeated Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur and also won from Nandigram, will be sworn in at the Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday morning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the event.
Shah, who formulated the strategies for the Bengal elections, headed straight to the Dakshineswar temple and offered puja after landing in Kolkata around noon.
“I bow to the people of Bengal for scripting history. We are resolved to fulfilling your aspirations,” he said in a post on X.
Adhikari, once a Trinamool Congress leader in East Midnapore district, had held several positions in the Bengal cabinet led by Mamata Banerjee. But he resigned from the government and the assembly in December 2020 to join the BJP at a rally attended by Amit Shah.
Mamata Banerjee challenged Adhikari in Nandigram in the 2021 state polls but lost by 1,956 votes, forcing her to contest a by-election at Bhabanipur months later to continue as chief minister.
Adhikari became the leader of the opposition in the state assembly and remained Mamata Banerjee’s foremost contender for the chief minister’s chair. This time, he contested from his Nandigram seat in East Midnapore for the third time and challenged Mamata Banerjee in her party’s pocketborough of Babanipur. For a party that never fielded two candidates in the past, it was Adhikari’s second acid test in a row.
In the two-phase Bengal polls, the BJP won a record 207 of the 294 seats in the assembly, in contrast to the TMC’s 80 seats.
Mamata could not retain the Bhabanipur seat either but refused to resign as chief minister, accusing the BJP, the Election Commission and central armed forces of manipulating the elections. Governor RN Ravi dissolved the assembly late on Thursday and did not appoint Mamata as the caretaker chief minister as is the convention.
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