Suvendu Adhikari Takes Oath As West Bengal's First BJP Chief Minister

New Delhi: Suvendu Adhikari takes oath as West Bengal's first BJP Chief Minister since independence. Senior BJP leaders including Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul and Ashok Kirtania were also sworn in as cabinet ministers during the grand ceremony in Kolkata.

Adhikari won both the Nandigram and Bhabanipur seats in the 2026 elections. Repeating Nandigram of 2021, this time around, he defeated outgoing CM Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan, along with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta and Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Dhami, attended the swearing-in ceremony. 

BJP leaders on Friday extended their wishes to Adhikari after he was named the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party in West Bengal and is poised to take the oath as the next Chief Minister of the State, following the party's victory in the 2026 Assembly elections.

In the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP secured 207 seats, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 80 seats, putting an end to its 15-year rule in the State. After 34 years of the Left and 15 years of TMC, Bengal once again echoed the spirit of 'Poriborton'. 

West Bengal recorded the highest-ever voter turnout since independence with an impressive 91.66% polling in Phase-ll of the Assembly elections. In phase I, the poll participation was 93.19%, taking the combined poll percentage to 92.47%.

The 2026 West Bengal Assembly election results have led to a dramatic political shift, ending Mamata Banerjee's long dominance and bringing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power with a commanding 206 seats. This marks a major blow to the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), which secured only 80 seats, a steep decline from its previous stronghold.