Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday took oath as the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal, marking a major political turning point in the state after decades of resistance to saffron politics.
R N Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Adhikari at a grand ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states and senior BJP leaders.
Soon after Adhikari’s swearing-in, senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh took oath as a minister in the new cabinet. BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik and Kshudiram Tudu were also sworn in as ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at Brigade Parade Ground, a venue historically associated with massive Left rallies and later a significant political battleground for the Trinamool Congress.
Thousands of BJP supporters gathered at the venue, waving saffron flags and chanting “Jai Shri Ram” slogans as Adhikari, regarded as one of the key architects behind the BJP’s rise in Bengal, took oath amid tight security arrangements.
The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member assembly in the recently concluded elections, ending the 15-year rule of the All India Trinamool Congress and marking the party’s biggest political breakthrough in eastern India.
The ceremony was attended by senior BJP leaders, MPs, industrialists and film personalities, with the party projecting the event as the beginning of a “Sonar Bangla” under a “double-engine” government.
Adhikari, who defeated TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur assembly constituency while also retaining his Nandigram seat, was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party on Friday in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
