Suvendu Adhikari voted BJP legislature party leader, to be Bengal’s first BJP CM

Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was on Friday elected leader of the BJP legislature party in West Bengal, clearing the path for him to become the state’s first BJP chief minister after the party’s landmark electoral victory.

Party sources said Adhikari’s name was proposed at the BJP legislature party meeting in Kolkata and formally announced by Union home minister Amit Shah in the presence of newly elected BJP MLAs and senior leaders.

The swearing-in ceremony of the new BJP government will be held on 9 May at Brigade Parade Ground.

Even before the formal oath-taking, preparations are underway across the state administrative machinery for the transition of power. A senior Assembly official said work was progressing “in full swing” at the West Bengal Assembly complex amid the possibility that the newly sworn-in cabinet may hold its first meeting there immediately after the ceremony.

“In the absence of any official communication, the Assembly secretariat is preparing the premises amid the possibility that the new cabinet members may come there after the swearing-in and hold their first meeting chaired by the new chief minister,” the official told PTI.

The official said chief secretary Dushyant Nariala held an emergency meeting with Assembly personnel on 6 May to review infrastructure and security arrangements.

“We have been asked to keep the annex building ready and take into account every infrastructural issue, considering security and other aspects. The building has to be kept ready,” the official said.

At the Assembly complex, nameplates of ministers outside their offices have already been removed as cleaning and maintenance work gathered pace.

Attention has also shifted to Writers' Buildings, the iconic colonial-era structure that historically housed the chief minister’s office and the state secretariat before the Trinamool Congress government shifted operations to Nabanna in 2013.

The building is currently undergoing renovation and maintenance work, fuelling speculation that the BJP government may eventually restore it as Bengal’s administrative headquarters.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said the party remained committed to governing from Writers’ Buildings. “We had said in 2021 that once our government comes to power, we will run the government from Writers’ Buildings. What will happen immediately after the swearing-in of the new government will be announced officially at the appropriate time,” he said.

However, Assembly officials said there had been no formal communication yet on whether the CMO would temporarily function from the Assembly annex building till the renovation of Writers’ Buildings is completed.

“No such word has been communicated to us. I think the final decision will be announced by the BJP leadership by tomorrow morning,” an official said.

Built in 1780 by architect Thomas Lyon in the neoclassical style with Corinthian columns, Writers’ Buildings originally served as a boarding house for East India Company clerks or 'writers', from whom it derived its name. It later evolved into the administrative nerve centre of Bengal under British rule and subsequently became the seat of power for successive state governments after Independence.

From Congress leader Prafulla Chandra Ghosh in 1947 to the CPI(M)’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2011, every chief minister functioned from the landmark building until Mamata Banerjee shifted the secretariat to Nabanna.

“The move to shift the state secretariat to Nabanna was a hasty, poorly planned one with no thought given to heritage and history. We will change that,” BJP MLA-elect Agnimitra Paul said.