It was a historic day for Suvendu Adhikari who took oath as the 9th Chief Minister of West Bengal on Saturday.
His entry into the Brigade Parade Ground was alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi atop a saffron vehicle, both waving at crowds of nearly two lakh people.
PM Modi then got down from the vehicle and walked past people who interacted with him up close, reflecting the jubilant mood of the historic moment for supporters, commoners, businessmen and religious leaders.
The PM then went onto the stage, paid tribute to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s picture before bowing down on the ground to pay his respects to Bengal, which has eluded the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since the country’s independence.
After the saffron party had tried to win the 2021 Assembly elections but failed, the 2026 Assembly elections with a 207-seat victory from 77 seats in 2021, were an important victory for the BJP.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, other Union ministers, and CMs of 20 BJP-ruled states were on stage too.
The national anthem was played at the beginning and at the end of the event. In between, West Bengal Governor R.N. Ravi administered the oath to Adhikari and five cabinet ministers. Agnimitra Paul, Dilip Ghosh, Nishit Pramanik, Khudiram Tudu and Ashok Kirtania were inducted into the cabinet.
People witnessing the event at the venue spoke about their expectations from the BJP government.
“The experience of being here is really good. People definitely voted for change, for better governance, more security for women, less corruption is what we are expecting," one attendee said.
“The BJP government will run well and Suvendu Adhikari will address issues related to Bengal which has been deprived,” another supporter said.
While this was BJP’s moment, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, paid tribute to Tagore at her Kalighat residence, stating that her party was denied permission to hold a programme at three public venues.
Mamata marked the occasion of Rabindra Jayanti and the formation of the new government as the start of her "fight for ethics".
“Our fight for ethics will begin today against atrocities. You all know what happened during voting,” Mamata Banerjee said.
She also spoke about the hooliganism that she and other TMC supporters had faced after TMC’s defeat, also mentioning TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s alleged harassment on a flight a few days ago.
“Police is silent ... When I won in 2011, I didn’t allow any atrocities. I had sent my own bulletproof car to former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and gave him Z+ security. And since they (BJP) have won, since that night, all our security was withdrawn," Mamata added.
“We have won the fight, remember that. We have been made to be defeated, which will be proved in coming days. All leaders of India from Delhi have gotten in touch with me. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge ji (Mallikarjun Kharge), Uddhav Thackeray have sent a message, Tejashwi (Yadav) has sent a message, Akhilesh Yadav has visited me. Apart from them, Hemant Soren and others are others, including Arvind (Kejriwal) said he has not been so saddened as when he lost. You have been made to lose,” ex-CM Banerjee pointed out, thanking them all.
The former CM of West Bengal also noted that she had the support of legal voices such as Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Prashant Bhushan, and Menaka Guruswamy.
Banerjee appealed to all parties—including the Left Front and Ultra-Left—to come forward and support the fight against the BJP.
“A platform for political parties against BJP, even if you say Leftists, I have no ego. I want to walk with everyone. It is such a situation that if we have to stop the BJP, (we need) Leftists, ultra-Leftists,” added the TMC supremo who had not tendered her resignation to Governor Ravi as per protocol, as she believes her party won morally.
After the election results on May 4, she had also pointed out that the BJP’s victory recognised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) was unethical in the wake of voter deletions under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and heavy presence of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) which worked in favour of the BJP and vote tampering.
