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India post-elections: Will Suvendu Adhikari become the next West Bengal chief minister?
There are few other names doing the rounds, including Dilip Ghosh, state party chief Samik Bhattacharya; and two women leaders, Agnimitra Paul and Roopa Ganguly
- PUBLISHED: Tue 5 May 2026, 1:54 PM
A day after winning elections in both the seats that he contested in West Bengal, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is being projected as the next chief minister of the state.
The 55-year-old politician has been with the BJP since 2020, but he has also had stints with the Congress and was a senior leader in Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC).
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Adhikari, who comes from a political family —his father, Sishir, was a junior minister in former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s ministry, between 2009 and 2012 — was close to Mamata and also served as minister in her cabinet.
However, after Mamata appointed her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, as her second-in-command — virtually sidelining Adhikari, he quit the TMC and joined the BJP in 2020.
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While Adhikari is being seen as the next CM, there are a few other names doing the rounds, including Dilip Ghosh, state party chief Samik Bhattacharya; and two women leaders, Agnimitra Paul and Roopa Ganguly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP president Nitin Nabin are expected to decide on the new chief minister, who will be sworn in on Saturday, May 9.
Adhikari shot into the limelight during the March 2007 rally in Nandigram, where farmers opposed the acquisition of 40,000 acres of land for an Indonesian chemical hub. About 14 persons were killed in the police firing and Adhikari, who was with Mamata’s party, launched a campaign against the communist government then ruling the state. Four years later, Mamata came to power in West Bengal, replacing the CPI(M).
The ambitious Adhikari, after winning the elections on Monday from both Bhabnipur and Nandigram, told the media that the BJP’s focus now would be on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year.
According to Adhikari, Mamata Banerjee, Bihar’s Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are now “finished”. And next is Akhilesh Yadav, of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, he added.
