West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari offers prayers at Kalighat Temple after taking oath, in Kolkata on May 9, 2026. Photo: Suvendhu Adhikari Official via ANI
Deposed Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has congratulated the new Chief Minister of West Bengal Suvenda Adhikari. In a message issued through Awami League officials on Saturday (May 9, 2026), Ms. Hasina said that Bangladesh had always wished for prosperity and peace in West Bengal under the leadership of Mr. Adhikari.
Awami League is banned in Bangladesh.
“The verdict of the people of West Bengal is a clear reflection of their deep trust and admiration for the strong and people-oriented leadership of Shri Suvendu Adhikari. West Bengal occupies a unique place in the history of sincere friendship between Bangladesh and India,” Ms Hasina said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the Bangladesh Awami League also expressed its support for Mr Adhikari. “Given the shared history, language and cultural ties between Bangladesh and West Bengal, the party expressed its firm belief that this new chapter will take these relations to greater heights,” the party said.
The Awami League, which has ruled Bangladesh for nearly 15 years, was banned during the interim government following a crackdown on civilians in the last phase of Ms Hasina’s rule in July-August 2024. Earlier, in April, the new government led by Prime Minister Tariq Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) formalized a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) resolution and approved the ban.
Mr Adhikari supported Ms Hasina in November 2025 when she was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka for her role in the 2024 crackdown. In comments shared with news agency ANI, Mr Adhikari opposed the death sentence. “It happened at the behest of Pakistan. It will not be done. Sheikh Hasina may be from a different country but she is associated with Bengali culture. She is a progressive Muslim. Sheikh Hasina was not associated with extremists,” he said.
Relations between Ms Hasina and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was defeated in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly elections, have been part of bilateral talks in the past. While Ms Banerjee supported the India-Bangladesh border agreement in June 2015, she did not openly support the Teesta Water Treaty, which Ms Hasina had been pushing for since at least 2011.
With Ms Banerjee gone after the last election, there are expectations in parts of Bangladesh’s BNP government that water-sharing deals, particularly the Teesta deal, will find support from the central government on the Indian side. The two sides are also expected to renew the Ganges Water Treaty by December 2026.
Published – 09 May 2026 23:44 IST
