In Pictures: BJP names Suvendu Adhikari as next West Bengal Chief Minister

Putting all speculation to rest, the BJP today chose Suvendu Adhikari for the Chief Minister’s post in West Bengal after the party’s thumping victory in the recently held Assembly polls

Adhikari was elected leader of the BJP legislature party during a meeting in Kolkata chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah

Once considered a close associate of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Adhikari switched to the BJP in 2020 ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections

In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP had emerged as the main opposition party in West Bengal after winning 77 seats

Fifty-five-year-old Adhikari served as the Leader of the Opposition in the now-dissolved Assembly

In 2026 assembly elections BJP secured 207 seats, storming to power in West Bengal five years after emerging as the principal opposition in the state

Adhikari is the son of three-time MP Sisir Adhikari, who served as a Union Minister during the UPA-II government

He began his political career with Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Congress, during a period when the Left was politically dominant in West Bengal

Adhikari was first elected as a councillor in the Kanthi municipality in 1995. He later joined the Trinamool Congress after Mamata Banerjee founded the party in 1998, before eventually switching to the BJP in 2020.