West Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari emerges as BJP’s giant killer in Bengal

ON apr 2, as Suvendu Adhikari made his path to register nomination papers for calcutta’s Bhabanipur sit down, Union home minister Amit Shah, while leading the roadshow, made a prediction.“Suvendu Da came and said he wanted to contest Nandigram. I said go to Bhabanipur as well and defeat Mamata inside her home. Our victory is ensured if we win 170 seats but it can be done if we win Bhabanipur. Mamata won the last election, but she was defeated by Suvendu Adhikari. This year, Mamata will lose all over Bengal as well as in Bhabanipur,” Shah said.As the numbers appeared to vindicate Shah on Monday evening, Adhikari, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson, Mamata Banerjee’s, cabinet colleague-turned-bete-noir, emerged not only as her vanquisher but also as the foremost contender for her chair at the state secretariat.“Unlike Lok Sabha polls, the BJP never fielded any candidate from two assembly seats in recent history. For Adhikari, this was a test of his charisma and capability as leader of the opposition,” a senior state BJP leader said on Monday evening. By 8:30 pm, the saffron camp had either won or was ahead of the TMC in 208 of Bengal’s 294 seats.Also Read:‘Poriborton hoye geche’: PM Modi’s three-word message after ending TMC era in Bengal“Our party will hold a meeting tonight to select the chief minister. Adhikari is on the list. Some leaders have also proposed the names of Rajya Sabha member and state president Samik Bhattacharya and state vice-president Agnimitra Paul, who has won from Asansol Dakshin,” the BJP leader said, asking not to be named.Although the counting for the Bhabanipur seat was still ongoing, Adhikari, who retained Nandigram in East Midnapore district for the third time, was confident. “A new dawn for sonar Bangla (golden Bengal)” Adhikari wrote on X.The East Midnapore district leader, who held several portfolios in the Bengal cabinet, resigned from the government and the assembly in December 2020 to join the BJP. Shah had welcomed him at a rally.Banerjee fought Adhikari in Nandigram in the 2021 state polls. She lost by 1956 votes. This forced her to win a by-election at Bhabanipur months later to continue as chief minister. Although the TMC won 213 seats against the BJP’s 77, the Nandigram debacle became the talking point in Bengal.“I will defeat Mamata again, this time at her own seat,” Adhikari said in his last campaign in Bhabanipur.BJP leaders said that Adhikari, despite being charged by the state police in around 300 cases since 2021, not only led a series of high-profile campaigns and advanced the party’s efforts to reach out to voters in TMC bastions but also canvassed for other candidates across Bengal over the last two months.“In 2025, Adhikari shaped the campaign strategy by publicly declaring that the BJP should focus on Bengal’s 70.54 % Hindu population (according to the 2011 census) and completely ignore the 27.01 % Muslims. No leader said that earlier. He also said in his campaigns that infiltration from Bangladesh has changed Bengal’s demographic character. The strategy clearly paid off,” a senior BJP state office bearer, who also asked not to be named, said.Adhikari’s prescription initially created a stir in the state unit but since January 2025 he repeated the statement multiple times. “I say jo hamaare saath, hum unke saath (we are with those who support us),” Adhikari said at a BJP state executive meeting in Kolkata on January 17, 2025.Muslim voters play a decisive role in at least 120 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats. The BJP won only 77 of these in 2021. The party fielded nine Muslim candidates but none won.“In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, we secured 38% per cent votes. These are all Hindu votes. If 10% more Hindus vote for us, we will oust Mamata Banerjee next year,” he said at a rally in East Midnapore in January, 2025.BJP did not field any Muslim candidate this time. Yet, by 6 pm on Monday, likely Hindu consolidation of Hindu votes helped the BJP secure a comfortable lead in many seats with high Muslim population, such as Malda, Murshidabad, Howrah, Kolkata and Birbhum.