Kolkata, May 7 (PTI) When BJP workers gather under the sprawling skies of Brigade Parade Ground in the heart of the city on May 9 to witness the swearing-in of the party’s first government in West Bengal, the moment will carry far more than the symbolism of an electoral victory.
For the saffron camp, it will mark the culmination of a political journey that began on the margins of Bengal’s ideological landscape and travelled through years of organisational expansion, cultural repositioning, defections, polarising campaigns and bruising street battles to finally arrive at the centre of power in a state long considered resistant to the BJP’s politics.
The ceremony, scheduled at 10 am and expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, will also unfold amid intense speculation over who will take oath as Bengal’s next chief minister.
While the BJP leadership has remained silent, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari has emerged as the central figure in the post-election political churn after scripting two of the most consequential victories of the election — retaining Nandigram and defeating Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur, the constituency seen as the TMC supremo’s political fortress.
The rise of Adhikari carries with it layers of political irony unique to Bengal politics.
The man who once stood beside Banerjee during the Nandigram land agitation that dismantled the Left Front’s 34-year rule is now positioned at the centre of the BJP’s own “poribartan” moment against the very party he helped build.
For many in the BJP, that political arc has become emblematic of the changing grammar of Bengal politics itself.
Standing in Nandigram on Wednesday, Adhikari — often referring to the constituency as his political “bhadrasan” or citadel — acknowledged the emotional and political pull between the two constituencies that now define his career.
“I was part of the 2011 ‘poribartan’, and now I am part of the real change,” he told supporters, while announcing that he would vacate one of the two seats within 10 days after consultations with the party leadership.
His dilemma reflects two contrasting political narratives.
Nandigram represents the origin of his mass politics — the anti-land acquisition movement that transformed him from a regional organiser into a dominant political force in coastal Bengal. Bhabanipur, however, carries a different symbolism altogether.
A leader from Purba Medinipur defeating Banerjee in her own south Kolkata stronghold has handed the BJP not just an electoral victory but a massive psychological breakthrough in Bengal’s political imagination.
Even as Adhikari’s stature has grown sharply after the election, the BJP leadership has sought to maintain suspense over the chief ministerial choice.
Apart from Adhikari, names such as state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta have surfaced in political discussions.
But party insiders indicated that the leadership remains inclined towards projecting a “bhumiputra” face rooted in Bengal’s linguistic and cultural ethos — a formulation repeatedly invoked by Shah during the campaign to counter the TMC’s charge that the BJP represented an “outsider” political culture.
That cultural messaging is visible in the timing of the swearing-in ceremony itself.
The oath-taking will be held on the 25th day of Baisakh, observed across Bengal as Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
According to BJP leaders, the choice is aimed at embedding the party’s historic rise within Bengal’s cultural consciousness while countering the perception battle that has long dogged the BJP in the state.
Over the last decade, the BJP has steadily attempted to reinterpret Bengal’s icons — from Tagore and Swami Vivekananda to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Syama Prasad Mookerjee — as part of a broader ideological effort to expand its emotional footprint beyond traditional electoral polarisation.
Yet beneath the triumphalism, the BJP leadership remains conscious of the volatile atmosphere accompanying the transition of power.
The killing of Adhikari’s aide Chandranath Rath in North 24 Parganas this week has cast a shadow over the celebrations, sharpening the political acrimony that has marked Bengal’s post-poll landscape.
With the BJP alleging a “targeted political assassination” and the TMC demanding a court-monitored probe, the incident has reinforced concerns over whether post-election violence could continue to haunt the state even as a new government prepares to take office.
Perhaps mindful of that tension, Adhikari has urged party workers not to take out immediate victory processions and instead maintain restraint.
The party’s sweeping victory — winning 207 of the 294 assembly seats — has dramatically altered Bengal’s political landscape, ending the TMC’s uninterrupted 15-year rule and reducing the Left-Congress space further into irrelevance.
Party insiders said discussions are also underway on balancing Bengal’s competing regional aspirations in the new cabinet, particularly the demand for stronger representation from north Bengal where the BJP has significantly expanded its base over successive elections.
A meeting of the newly elected BJP MLAs has been convened on May 8 in presence of Shah, where the legislature party leader is expected to be formally elected.
For now, however, Brigade Parade Ground awaits a moment Bengal politics had once considered improbable — the BJP formally assuming power in a state where, not too long ago, it struggled to find organisational footing beyond isolated pockets.
On Saturday morning, the saffron party’s long march from the fringes to the seat of power will finally reach its destination. PTI PNT NN
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