Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Kolkata on Friday morning to attend the BJP's legislature party meeting, in which its leader will be elected.
Shah was received at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, among others. From the airport, he went to a hotel in New Town. In the afternoon, Shah will attend the legislature party meeting of the BJP at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.
On Saturday, he will be attending the swearing-in ceremony at the Brigade Parade Ground, along with PM Narendra Modi, BJP President Nitin Nabin, and the chief ministers of all NDA-ruled states. It will be the swearing-in ceremony of the first BJP government in West Bengal.
Governor R. N. Ravi dissolved the incumbent Assembly on Thursday, paving the way for the formation of the new government. The BJP registered a historic victory in the just-held Assembly elections, ending the TMC's 15-year rule and dealing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee one of the biggest setbacks of her political career.
Many believe Suvendu Adhikari will be chosen to helm the government. Once among Banerjee's closest associates and a key architect of the TMC's organisational expansion in rural West Bengal, Adhikari joined the BJP in December 2020 and went on to become the party's most aggressive campaigner.
Though the BJP has not officially announced its chief ministerial choice, Adhikari has emerged as the frontrunner after securing two of the most politically significant victories—retaining Nandigram, where he defeated Banerjee in 2021, and now wresting Bhabanipur, long regarded as the TMC supremo's pocket borough.
The new Chief Minister will then go to Raj Bhavan in the evening with the prospective MLAs and request the Governor to form the government. Once that process is completed, the new government will be sworn in at the Brigade on Saturday.
