West Bengal witnessed the beginning of a new BJP government, marked by the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the swearing-in ceremony. While Suvendu Adhikari taking oath as the new Chief Minister was the highlight of the ceremony, the next moment that grabbed everyone’s attention was Modi seeking blessings from Makhanlal Sarkar.
Modi touches the feet of Makhan Lal Sarkar
At the brigade parade in Kolkata, PM Modi congratulated and touched the feet of Sarkar, who is 98.
The two also shared a warm hug on stage.
Who is Makhan Lal Sarkar?
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Makhanlal Sarkar is one of the earliest members of the BJP, associated with the party since the post-independence era. He is known to have accompanied Syama Prasad Mookerjee and was arrested in 1952 during the movement to hoist the Indian flag in Kashmir.
After the BJP was founded in 1980, Makhanlal Sarkar served as the organizational coordinator for districts like West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. He is said to have enrolled nearly 10,000 members within a year, greatly helping the growth of the party in North Bengal.
PM Modi sought the blessings of Makhanlal Sarkar, a 98-year-old veteran BJP worker, at the swearing-in ceremony of Suvendu Adhikari as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The gesture highlighted Sarkar’s long association with the party and the nationalist movement.
Makhanlal Sarkar was arrested in 1952 in Kashmir when he accompanied Syama Prasad Mookerjee during the movement to hoist the Indian flag in the region.
After the BJP was founded in 1980, Makhanlal Sarkar served as the organizational coordinator for districts including West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. He later served as District President for seven consecutive years beginning in 1981.
Makhan Lal Sarkar is one of the earliest members of BJP. He has been associated with the party since the post-independence era and has worked with the top brass.
Sarkar is best known for accompanying Syama Prasad Mookerjee. In 1952, during the movement, he was arrested while trying to hoist the Indian flag in Kashmir.
After the formation of the BJP in 1980, Makhan Lal Sarkar served as the organizational coordinator of districts like West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. He reportedly enrolled nearly 10,000 members in the party in a span of one year, helping the BJP’s expansion in North Bengal.
From 1981, Sarkar served as the district president for seven years.
BJP in Bengal
The viral moment between PM Modi and Makhan Lal Sarkar took place ahead of the swearing in of Suvendu Adhikari as the state’s first ever BJP Chief Minister. Several senior BJP leaders also attended the event.
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Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan also attended the ceremony in Kolkata. Other Chief Ministers including Manik Saha (Tripura), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Rekha Gupta (Delhi), Pushkar Dhami (Uttarakhand) and others were also present.
Besides Adhikari, five other BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Kshudiram Tudu and Nisith Pramanik were also sworn in to serve as ministers in the West Bengal cabinet.
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After the swearing-in ceremony, the new CM of Bengal told reporters, as quoted by ANI: “The ideology and political foundation on which the rise and ultimate victory of the BJP is based is Syama Prasad Mookerjee…if it were not for Syama Prasad Mookerjee, our situation would have been the same as that of the minority Hindus in Bangladesh in June. I will nominate 20 to the cabinet.” 1947, as the Foundation Day of West Bengal.”
The BJP secured a landslide victory in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, securing 207 seats and defeating the TMC by a huge margin. Thus ending Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year TMC rule in the state.
Adhikari defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to win the Bhabanipur Assembly seat by over 15,000 votes. At the same time, he also retained Nandigram.
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“Give me some time. We have concrete plans to develop places associated with many world personalities who are part of Bengali heritage and pride,” Adhikari also said after visiting Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s house.
“We need to bring back the lost glory of Bengal which went down under TMC rule. From culture to law and order, especially women’s safety and economic decline, Bengal has lost its primacy in the last 15 years. We need to set the record straight and bring the state back to the path of glory.”
