Suvendu Adhikari to take oath as CM today, his mentor Mamata Banerjee invited

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari will take oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal today at 11 am. He, along with his council of ministers, is expected to take the oath as the chief minister in a grand ceremony at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya told reporters in Kolkata that Mamata Banerjee has been invited to the ceremony as per protocol. In the recently conducted assembly polls, Adhikari won against Mamata from the Bhabanipur assembly seat by a margin of more than 15,000 votes. 

Besides this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, top Union ministers and around 20 chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will attend the ceremony. 

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On Friday, Union Minister Amit Shah formally announced Adhikari as the elected leader of the BJP legislature party in Bengal. Soon after this, the senior BJP leader told party workers that it was time for “bhoy out, bhorsha in” (fear out, trust in). 

He promised a government focused squarely on delivery, women’s safety and the creation of a “Sonar Bangla”. 

“We need to create a Sonar Bangla. We need to make Bengal a safe place for women. Amit Shah said we have been able to remove fear. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us trust. It is time for bhoy out, bhorsha in. For that, we need to work more and talk less,” Suvendu Adhikari told party MLAs.

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He would take the oath as the 9th chief minister of the state and the first in 55 years to helm the administration with origins in the districts. 

The last time Bengal had a chief minister from its rural backyards and not from its capital in Kolkata was in 1971 when Ajoy Mukherjee, representing the Indian National Congress (Requisitionists), a breakaway faction led by Indira Gandhi after the Congress split in 1969, took charge for his third stint as the state’s CM.

Mukherjee hailed from undivided Medinipur, the region Adhikari also owes its roots to.

In West Bengal, the BJP won the assembly elections with 207 out of the 293 seats, whereas the TMC won 80 seats. The Congress and Humayun Kabir-led AJUP won 2 seats each, whereas the CPI(M) and AISF bagged one seat each.