The BJP on Friday named Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal. Adhikari, who served as the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly, will become only the ninth CM in the state’s history, replacing his former party chief Mamata Banerjee, with whom he had a deep political rift before quitting the All India Trinamool Congress to join the BJP in December 2020.

 The son of three-time MP Sisir Adhikari, who served as the Union Minister of State for Rural Development in the UPA-2 administration, Suvendu began his political career with the Chhatra Parishad, the Congress student wing, during a period when Left influence was at its strongest.

He showed early ability in mobilisation and leadership and two years after Mamata Banerjee founded the TMC in 1998, he, alongside his father and brothers, entered the party. This quickly gave the TMC the grassroots backing it needed to challenge the Communist Party of India (Marxist) machinery in Purba Medinipur district, where the Adhikari family had maintained political influence for decades.

 With Suvendu’s organisational acumen, the party steadily expanded in the region and confronted the dominance of then CPI(M) heavyweight and former Tamluk MP Lakshman Seth. When the Nandigram movement erupted in March 2007, a year after Singur, the TMC was able to spearhead the anti-land acquisition campaign because of Suvendu, who coordinated party workers across the area.

At that time, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) was also active in the agitation, aiming to widen its organisational reach in the region, and maintained links with TMC figures and members of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC). The BUPC, or Committee against Land Evictions, was an alliance of residents and political groups that united to oppose land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone and behind the curtain, the individual directing it was Suvendu, then a young first-time MLA.

Besides his organisational capabilities, which several in the TMC later acknowledged after his departure from the party over a decade afterward, his direct speeches delivered in a rural Bengali accent and his streetfighter persona — closely resembling Mamata Banerjee — helped him cultivate a loyal support base.

 A sharp strategist, Suvendu turned the Nandigram agitation into a launchpad for both himself and the party, consolidating his own authority and playing an influential role for the party in Purba Medinipur district, Paschim Medinipur district, Bankura district, and Purulia district, extending all the way to Malda district and Murshidabad district. Though first regarded as a regional strongman, he eventually established influence far beyond Purba Medinipur.

 His political ascent carried him to New Delhi after he defeated his longtime rival, Lakshman Seth, from Tamluk in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He held the constituency again in 2014, even as the Congress-led UPA lost power and the BJP formed the government. Following Mukul Roy’s exit from the TMC in 2017, Suvendu emerged as one of the party’s principal strategists, contributing both organisational muscle and political calculation. However, his distancing from Mamata Banerjee and the TMC began after the TMC supremo started grooming her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as her deputy-in-command, a role Suvendu had informally occupied until then.

 The transport minister in the second Mamata administration, Suvendu exited the party in a dramatic move in 2020, later introducing the slogan, “tolabaj bhaipo hatao [remove the extortionist nephew]”. This slogan, voiced at a public gathering in Paschim Medinipur district, prompted Mamata Banerjee to describe the Adhikari family as “Mir Jafars (traitors)”. The TMC leader also criticised herself by calling herself a “big donkey (boro gadha)” for not recognising their “real character” earlier.

 However, Suvendu’s departure was strongly felt as Mamata Banerjee lost to him in Nandigram in the 2021 elections and the TMC weakened significantly in Purba Medinipur district.

 Defeating Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 election and then again in Bhabanipur this time has elevated him into a major figure among BJP workers and supporters. After 2021, as Leader of the Opposition, his aggressive posture despite the overwhelming strength of the All India Trinamool Congress further increased his stature within the BJP.

 What will be on his agenda?

 Now, as he assumes office, the Suvendu Adhikari administration will confront multiple challenges, ranging from law and order to improving weak civic infrastructure and repairing the state’s finances, a situation already stressed because of repeated clashes between the Centre and the Mamata Banerjee government. First, the new administration’s immediate focus will be to restore law and order and stop sporadic political violence witnessed over the past several days.

 Suvendu’s personal aide Chandranath Rath was shot dead near Kolkata on Wednesday night and the challenge will be to ensure a swift investigation to apprehend the attackers quickly, and prevent the situation from escalating as it did in 2021, when BJP workers allegedly faced widespread post-poll violence after the TMC’s victory.

The incoming administration must also deliver, among other things, the BJP’s pledge of a monthly financial support of Rs 3,000 to women that was introduced as a response to Mamata Banerjee’s Lakshmir Bhandar initiative, under which women earlier received Rs 1,500 (women belonging to SC and ST communities receive Rs 1,700).

 The BJP has additionally promised a monthly assistance of Rs 3,000 to unemployed youth (double the amount the TMC pledged to provide), and devise ways to generate 1 crore new jobs and self-employment opportunities over the next five years to curb large-scale migration.

 The new BJP administration will also seek to implement the Uniform Civil Code and address undocumented immigration along the Bangladesh border. The BJP has further assured that within 45 days of taking office, it will enforce the 7th Pay Commission recommendations and clear pending Dearness Allowance arrears. According to the state government affidavit submitted to court, this would require an additional expenditure of Rs 42,000 crore.