New Delhi: “Bengal will shake you out of power,” BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had thundered as warning to Trinamool leader and then chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a rally in East Midnapore in November last year. Most saw it as regular rhetoric.
Six months later, however, that warning looks like the result of the West Bengal Assembly elections foretold in one short, sharp sentence. On Friday, Adhikari was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party, making him the next chief minister of West Bengal. He will be sworn in on Saturday in Kolkata, ending 15 years of Trinamool rule in the state.
Mamata’s bete noire has snatched her crown, and placed it on his own head.
Adhikari was not just the prophet of Didi’s doom; he emerged as the giant-killer of this year’s election, leading the BJP to 207 victories in the battle for the 293 seats in the state’s legislature. The Trinamool Congress managed only 80 seats. Once a close aide of Mamata, Adhikari rubbed it in with a double-barrel plus win, not just winning from two constituencies, but also defeating the now former chief minister in her very own borough of Bhabanipur.
This is the second time that Adhikari has bested Mamata. In the 2021 Assembly elections, he wrested Nandigram from her by a slender margin of 1,956 votes. Mamata went on to become chief minister, winning the bypoll from Bhabanipur six months later.
Named the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal, Adhikari’s wheel of political fortune has turned full circle. And it took him all of six years to do it.
Many within the BJP, especially those who have worked closely with Adhikari, say that he has managed to carve a niche within the cadre-based organisation that it is. Adhikari joined the BJP in 2020 after falling out with Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek, who had started asserting his authority in the party. A senior TMC leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that this led to differences with Adhikari, the main force behind Mamata’s 2007 land agitation in Nandigram that ended the 34-year-old Left reign in the state.
Adhikari was considered Mamata’s ‘right-hand man’ in West Bengal, one of the key members who helped strengthen the TMC at the grassroots level.
By the 2011 elections, Mamata had emerged a dragonslayer—much like Adhikari now—and catapulted to the summit of the state’s power.
“It was Nandigram where Adhikari rose to prominence in the TMC and became close to Banerjee,” a senior TMC leader said, adding that he was given key organizational responsibilities in the party. A senior BJP leader said that Adhikari has a strong hold on the organisation and a well-oiled network at the grassroots level. “In fact, even when he was in the TMC he was the point person there too. But since joining the BJP, he has not only been espousing the Hindutva cause but has also maintained a fine balance by raising local issues, something that proved handy during these elections,” said the BJP leader.
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Aggressive face
Many BJP leaders consider him the party’s ‘aggressive’ face in West Bengal, one who does not shy away from calling a spade a spade. Several recall how Adhikari lost his temper during a roadshow in Howrah’s Bali constituency before the West Bengal elections after TMC workers disrupted his rally. “He literally had to be controlled by security personnel after TMC workers deliberately tried to disrupt the rally and shouted slogans. But Adhikari is not someone to let things go, so he retaliated,” said a senior BJP leader.
Referring to the incident, a BJP state functionary said that Adhikari is known for relying on aggressive speeches backed by strong strategy. “He knows what works where. When dealing with the TMC, he is well aware that one must be quite aggressive to match them, and that altercation at the roadshow is a small example of that. In fact, he is quite vocal in his speeches too. When dealing with an organisation which has a gunda (thug) image, it helps to have someone who can answer them in their own language,” said a West Bengal BJP leader.
Many within the BJP term the Nandigram election as the key inflection point in Adhikari’s political tenure, for he emerged as a central figure in West Bengal politics and within the BJP at one go.
Born into an influential political family of Kanthi in East Medinipur in December 1970, Adhikari’s father Sisir was a Congress veteran who later moved to the TMC. He graduated in political science from Vidyasagar University. When Mamata Banerjee left the Congress in 1998, the Adhikari family, including Suvendu, his brother Soumendu, and father joined the TMC. The political background of his family helped Suvendu grasp the nuances of politics from a very young age.
Another BJP leader stressed that Adhikari’s ability to connect directly with the people has proved an asset for him and the BJP. “In 2021, despite doing better the BJP was not able to match the TMC because we were not competent organisationally. Within a few years, Adhikari made it a point to be constantly present in his area for a better understanding of local issues which we then saw highlighted in the party’s manifesto,” he added.
Sweetening Adhikari’s cup of joy even more is the fact that the BJP, making steady inroads in West Bengal over time, had faced a setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as its tally came down to 12 seats from the 18 it won in 2019. Likewise, in the last Assembly elections of 2021, the TMC secured 215 seats while the BJP finished a poor second with 77 seats to become the official Opposition.
Adhikari’s victory couldn’t have been more emphatic. What he does as chief minister comes next.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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