Suvendu Adhikari emerges frontrunner for Bengal chief minister post

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) newly elected legislators are scheduled to meet in Kolkata on Friday to formally elect their leader, with Suvendu Adhikari emerging as the leading contender to become West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister.

Union Home minister Amit Shah is expected to attend the meeting, which comes days after the BJP secured a decisive victory in the state assembly elections, ending the Trinamool Congress’ 15-year rule.

The election result marked a major political setback for Mamata Banerjee and represented the BJP’s most significant breakthrough in West Bengal to date.

Although the party has yet to officially announce its choice for chief minister, Adhikari is widely seen as the frontrunner following a series of high-profile electoral victories.

The senior BJP leader retained Nandigram, where he defeated Banerjee in the 2021 assembly election, and also captured Bhabanipur in the latest polls — a constituency long considered a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress chief.

Party insiders said Adhikari’s victory in Bhabanipur by a margin of more than 15,000 votes is being viewed within the BJP as both politically symbolic and strategically significant.

The swearing-in ceremony for the state’s first BJP government is expected to take place at Brigade Parade Ground on 9 May.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Nabin and chief ministers from NDA-ruled states are likely to attend the event.

Adhikari, once regarded as one of Banerjee’s closest associates and a key organiser for the Trinamool Congress in rural Bengal, joined the BJP in December 2020 and has since emerged as one of the party’s most prominent leaders in the state.

A senior BJP leader said Adhikari’s sustained campaign against the TMC, organisational influence and electoral successes had considerably strengthened his claim to the top post.

However, the leadership race is not believed to be entirely settled.

Other names being discussed within BJP circles include state party president Samik Bhattacharya and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, who won from the Rashbehari constituency.

Dasgupta is viewed by some within the party as an intellectual and policy-oriented figure capable of balancing governance with political messaging, while Bhattacharya is credited with steering the state unit through a crucial electoral phase.

Senior BJP leaders maintained that the final decision on the chief ministerial candidate would ultimately rest with the party’s central leadership.

With PTI inputs