KOLKATA, MAY 9 (PTI): Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday took oath as West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister at the iconic Brigade Parade Grounds that witnessed the swearing-in of the party’s government for the first time since Independence.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP’s central leadership and chief ministers of NDA-ruled states seated on the capacious rostrum, Governor RN Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Adhikari amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram”, drumbeats and a sea of fluttering saffron flags.
As Modi walked onto the stage, he knelt down facing the crowd and touched his forehead to the dais with folded hands in a mark of reverence to the people’s mandate, drawing loud cheers from thousands of BJP supporters packed into the historic venue.
Adhikari, who won from both Bhabanipur and Nandigram constituencies and emerged as the face of the BJP’s aggressive campaign, took the oath first.
He was followed by senior BJP leader and its former state unit president Dilip Ghosh, who was inducted into the cabinet as a minister. BJP legislators Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Kshudiram Tudu and Nisith Pramanik were also administered the oath as ministers. The six-member ministry reflected the BJP’s attempt at social and regional balancing, with representation from Brahmin, OBC, tribal, Matua and Rajbanshi communities.
Two ministers in the BJP’s first cabinet are from north Bengal and three from the south, underlining the party’s attempts at consolidating its support across regions. Notably, absent from the first list of ministers was any representative from Kolkata, a city that has historically produced some of Bengal’s tallest political figures and chief ministers.
Sources said the remaining ministers of the BJP government are likely to be sworn in at the Raj Bhavan on Monday. The first meeting of the new cabinet may also be held on the same day. The Brigade Parade Grounds, once regarded as ideological fortress of the Left and later appropriated by TMC as a showpiece of political strength, turned into the stage for the saffron party’s biggest breakthrough in Bengal that has been projected by BJP as the dawn of a “Sonar Bangla” under a “double-engine government”.
