‘Ami Suvendu Adhikari…’: Senior BJP leader takes oath as West Bengal CM in mega ceremony

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday took the oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The oath of secrecy and administration was administered to Adhikari by Bengal’s Governor RN Ravi. The grand swearing-in ceremony took place at the Brigade Parade Ground in the heart of Kolkata. 

Along with him, several newly elected MLAs were also administered the oath of secrecy by the Governor. Those who took the oath as ministers in the state cabinet included former Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, Bengal BJP Secretary Agnimitra Paul, former Union minister Nisith Pramanik, Ranibandh MLA Kshudiram Tudu, and Bangaon Uttar MLA Ashok Kirtania.

Ahead of the ceremony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Suvendu Adhikari paid floral tributes to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary. Modi also hugged and touched the feet of Makhanlal Sarkar, one of the seniormost party workers in Bengal.

Sarkar was arrested in Kashmir in 1952 while accompanying Syama Prasad Mukherjee during the movement to hoist the Indian tricolour there.

Besides PM Modi, the mega event was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and some 20 chief ministers of NDA-ruled states, senior BJP leaders and thousands of party workers from across the state. BJP Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya was also present at the event. 

Among the CMs who attended the ceremony are Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Samrat Chaudhary (Bihar), Rekha Gupta (Delhi), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rajasthan), Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya), Manik Saha (Tripura), Prem Singh Tamang (Sikkim), N Biren Singh (Manipur) and Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland). 

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The Deputy CMs sighted at the ceremony included Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak (Uttar Pradesh), Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar (Maharashtra), Diya Kumari (Rajasthan), and Nemcha Kipgen (Manipur).

Smriti Irani, who played an instrumental role in ensuring the BJP’s win in Bengal, was also spotted at the oath-taking ceremony. Besides this, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, J P Nadda, Chirag Paswan, Sukanta Majumder and others were also present at the event. 

Security arrangements were also intensified at the RCTC Ground, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to land before attending the ceremony.

A multi-layered security apparatus, including central forces and Kolkata Police personnel, was put in place at Brigade Parade Grounds, the venue of the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected BJP government.

CRPF personnel were deployed outside Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence amid heightened political activity in the city.

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Suvendu Adhikari was widely seen as the frontrunner for the top office in the state, especially since the BJP said that Bengal would get a “son of the soil” as the Chief Minister. Adhikari’s claim to the top office in the state solidified after he defeated Mamata in Bhabanipur by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

In a historic breakthrough, the BJP won 207 seats out of the total 293 seats contested, ending the 15-year reign of the Trinamool Congress. The TMC was reduced to just 80 seats.