The first swearing-in ceremony of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in West Bengal will be held on May 9 at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya announced on Wednesday.
The saffron camp is poised to formally assume power after ending West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year rule in the state.
Details of the swearing-in ceremony
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 am, party sources told news agency PTI, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are expected to witness the ceremony along with BJP president Nitin Nabin and several other Union ministers.
Speaking to reporters, Bhattacharya said, “The new BJP government will be sworn in on May 9 at 10 am at the Brigade Parade Ground.”
The solemn oath and the meaning of the date
Significantly, the swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place on the 25th day of Baisakh in the Bengali calendar, which is observed across the state as Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, lending a layer of cultural symbolism to the event.
Party sources added that the choice of the date is seen in political circles as an attempt by the BJP to embed its historic rise in the state’s cultural imagination and counter the TMC’s long-standing portrayal of the saffron party as an “outsider party” disconnected from the Bengali linguistic and intellectual ethos.
A meeting of the newly elected BJP MLAs has been called for the evening of May 8, party sources said, though the leadership remained tight-lipped about the chief ministerial face.
Earlier today, BJP leaders, including state president Samik Bhattacharya and national general secretary Sunil Bansal, reached Nabanna, Kolkata to attend a key meeting.
Amit Shah appointed BJP Central Observer for Bengal
ANI reported that on Tuesday, Shah was appointed as the party’s central observer for West Bengal, with Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi as the chief co-observer. Additionally, Union Minister JP Nadda was designated as the central observer for the election of the party’s legislature party leader in Assam, with Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini as the chief co-observer.
Besides, Shah is expected to visit West Bengal on Thursday evening as part of the saffron party’s ongoing political engagements after its historic victory in the state. According to top BJP sources, Shah will first attend the swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet in Bihar and then fly directly to West Bengal from there. His visit is seen as significant, coming at a crucial moment when the party is actively involved in post-election strategy and government formation discussions.
West Bengal Assembly Elections
The BJP secured a landslide victory in the recently concluded assembly elections, paving the way for its first ever government in Bengal after years of organizational expansion and sharp ideological polarization.
According to the latest data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the BJP won 206 seats out of 294 in the state assembly elections, surpassing its 77 seats in the 2021 assembly elections. On the other hand, the TMC, which topped the last assembly polls with 212 seats, finished a distant second with just 80 seats.
