How Suvendu Adhikari emerged as BJP’s face in West Bengal

Suvendu Adhikari’s rise to becoming West Bengal’s first BJP Chief Minister has been marked by electoral victories over Mamata Banerjee, aggressive opposition politics and sustained grassroots mobilisation. His leadership in major political agitations helped establish him as the BJP’s strongest face in Bengal

Kolkata: Very few in West Bengal were taken aback when, on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah formally anointed one of the BJP’s most prominent faces, Suvendu Adhikari, as the leader of the party’s legislative wing in the state, a decisive move that all but cleared the path for him to be sworn in as the state’s ninth and the BJP’s first Chief Minister on Saturday amid mounting political anticipation and high drama.

In many ways, Adhikari earned the distinction, having dealt two resounding electoral blows to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee within the span of five years, first in his own backyard of Nandigram during the 2021 Assembly elections, and then, perhaps even more symbolically, in Banerjee’s so-called “impregnable” bastion of Bhabanipur in the recently concluded polls.

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His victories, coupled with his pivotal role in orchestrating the BJP’s watershed triumph in Bengal, firmly cemented his stature as one of the primary architects of the party’s remarkable ascent in the state.

Indeed, Adhikari’s political journey has been marked as much by confrontation as by calculation, most notably during his five-year tenure as the Leader of the Opposition, when he emerged as the principal challenger to the regime of Mamata Banerjee.

From fierce legislative battles to relentless agitations within the precincts of the Assembly, Adhikari, as the Leader of the Opposition, positioned himself at the forefront of the BJP’s campaign against the government’s policies and legislation, often dominating proceedings with combative speeches and charged interventions on the floor of the House.

That turbulent phase, however, was not without backlash. In repeated confrontations with the erstwhile TMC establishment, Adhikari, along with several BJP legislators, endured the ignominy of multiple suspensions from the Assembly, punitive measures that came to symbolise the deepening acrimony between the treasury and opposition benches.

While some suspensions extended through the entirety of an ongoing session of the House, others were equally severe in their own right. One such instance, in February 2025, saw Adhikari barred from the Assembly for an uninterrupted period of 30 days, underscoring the extraordinary intensity of the political face-offs that came to define that period in the state’s legislative history.

Outside the Assembly too, Adhikari remained at the forefront of the BJP’s street resistance against the ruling TMC regime in West Bengal.

From spearheading protests over the alleged post-poll violence following the 2021 Assembly elections to leading marches towards the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ and mobilising cadres over issues of corruption, unemployment and law and order, Adhikari consistently positioned himself at the centre of the party’s political offensives.

He played a particularly aggressive role during the agitation surrounding the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, repeatedly targeting the government over allegations of systemic corruption and demanding accountability at the highest levels.

As political tensions deepened across the state, Adhikari emerged as the BJP’s principal mobiliser during some of Bengal’s most volatile flashpoints.

During the 2023 panchayat elections, he led sustained protests over alleged electoral violence and intimidation, while in 2024 he became one of the most visible faces of the party’s agitation over the unrest in Sandeshkhali, accusing the ruling establishment of shielding local strongmen and suppressing dissent.

He also fronted the party’s protests in the aftermath of the outrage surrounding RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, seeking to transform public anger into a broader movement against the state government.

Through rallies, dharnas, Assembly confrontations and statewide campaigns, Adhikari steadily cultivated the image of a combative opposition leader who remained at the forefront of virtually every major BJP agitation in Bengal ever since he switched camps from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP in December 2020.

Adhikari also embodies, almost perfectly, the template earlier articulated by Shah during his campaign trail, that the BJP’s chief ministerial face in Bengal would be a son of the soil, born and raised in the state, shaped by its culture and educated through the Bengali-medium system.

Born in Karkuli village in Purba Medinipur district to veteran politician Sisir Adhikari and Gayatri Adhikari, Adhikari’s formative years were marked by his primary and secondary education at Contai High School before pursuing an undergraduate degree in Arts from Prabhat Kumar College in the same region.

He later earned a Master’s degree in History from Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University, a trajectory that reinforced his image as a quintessential Bengali political figure whose rise was forged not outside, but from within the heartland of the state itself.

As far as experience in state administration is concerned, Adhikari happens to be among the most experienced BJP leaders in the state, having served as Minister for Transport from May 2016 to November 2020 and also as Minister for Environment from 2018 to 2020 in the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee cabinet.

It was against this charged backdrop that Shah, following the meeting of the BJP’s legislative party in Kolkata, made what many had already begun to anticipate as an inevitability rather than a decision.

Declaring that no alternative names were proposed for the position against Adhikari, the Union Home Minister effectively anointed him as the unanimous choice of the party’s newly elected legislators, a proclamation that was met with resounding applause and loud cheers from the newly elected saffron legislators, sealing the moment with a sense of political finality and theatrical affirmation.