Illustration by Sreejith R. Kumar
Weeks before Suvendu Adhikari defected from the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP in December 2020, several Trinamool leaders tried to convince him to stay. But Mr. Adhikari’s close aides knew he had made up his mind: he wanted to become chief minister of West Bengal — an ambition he would never have been able to realize had he stayed with the Trinamool.
Mr Adhikari was the most promising of the second generation of Trinamool leaders until Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee entered the political scene. At the age of 27, Abhishek was elected as a member of the Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha in 2014. By then, Mr. Adhikari had emerged as a prominent Trinamool leader who had challenged the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s organizational strength during the Nandigram protests.
Mr. Adhikari hails from a political family in the coastal district of Purba Medinipur in West Bengal. His father Sishir Adhikari was associated with the Congress and then Trinamool when the party was founded in 1998.
It was the fight against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram that catapulted Ms Banerjee and the Trinamool to power in 2011 and ended 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal. Mr. Adhikari was at the forefront of these protests. From the victims of the 2007 Nandigram firing to those killed in the 2025 Murshidabad communal violence, many families of the victims say Mr. Adhikari stood by them when few others did.
Growing influence
After the Trinamool came to power in 2011, Mr Adhikari began expanding his political influence across south and central Bengal, bringing MLAs, civic bodies and Left Front strongholds led by the CPI(M) and the Congress into the Trinamool. In 2016, he joined Ms Banerjee’s cabinet and became one of the most influential ministers in charge of transport and environment.
The most challenging part of Mr. Adhikari’s political journey came after he left the Trinamool. After defeating Ms. Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes, he faced a barrage of criminal cases by the West Bengal police.
The state police filed so many cases against him that the Calcutta High Court, in an unprecedented order, ordered that no fresh FIR be filed against Mr Adhikari and stayed proceedings in all pending cases. The affidavit filed by the BJP leader before the Election Commission in 2026 covered 29 cases.
By his own admission, the BJP leader had to approach the Calcutta High Court on 111 occasions after the police denied him permission to hold public meetings. He has repeatedly stated at election rallies that West Bengal will go the way of Bangladesh if the Trinamool comes to power again in 2026.
Mr Adhikari was no stranger to controversy. His name figured in the Narada sting videos in which several Trinamool leaders were seen accepting cash on camera ahead of the 2016 assembly elections. Recently, after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he courted another controversy when he said there was no need for a BJP Minority Morcha because Muslims did not vote for the BJP. If Ms Banerjee was a student of Left Front politics, Mr Adhikari is a student of Ms Banerjee – populist, relentless, ruthless and unafraid to deploy the administrative apparatus against political opponents. Once her closest aide, he became her fiercest rival.
By defeating Ms Banerjee in her stronghold of Bhabanipur by 15,115 votes in the 2026 assembly elections, Mr Adhikari has cemented his claim to the post of Chief Minister of West Bengal.
At 57, Mr Adhikari takes charge of West Bengal at one of its most challenging times – when the state is in dire need of industry and jobs, its social fabric is deeply polarized and law and order concerns persist. One of West Bengal’s most popular leaders, Mr. Adhikari brings decades of electoral experience and some administrative experience. But he will need considerable political skill and foresight to get the state back on track.
Published – 10 May 2026 02:07 IST
