BJP Takes Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari Sworn in as First Saffron Chief Minister |
Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in on Saturday (May 9) as West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister, marking a dramatic rupture in the state’s political history and ending 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule.
Adhikari, the ninth chief minister of Bengal, took oath at the iconic Brigade Parade Grounds in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, senior BJP leaders and chief ministers of NDA-ruled states. The BJP has won 207 seats in the 294-member assembly.
The ceremony was carefully framed around Bengali cultural symbolism. The BJP chose Brigade Parade Grounds, long associated with Left mass rallies and later major anti-Left and anti-BJP mobilisations, while the dais carried Bengali cultural motifs. The date chosen for the oath ceremony was Pochishe Boishakh, Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary. Political observers read the staging as part of the BJP’s effort to counter the “outsider” charge and insert itself into Bengal’s cultural imagination.
West Bengal governor R.N. Ravi administers the oath to Adhikari. Photo: PTI/Manvender Vashist Lav.
That symbolism also carried a political edge. The oath ceremony coincided with reports that the long-running Rabindra Jayanti programme at Rabindra Sadan stood cancelled this year, even as the new chief minister drove straight to Jorasanko Thakurbari, Tagore’s birthplace, after the ceremony to pay floral tribute to Tagore before........