Suvendu Adhikari’s journey from Trinamool Nandigram land stir leader to becoming BJP’s first Bengal CM
Kolkata: Two anti-land acquisition movements that turned out to be principal architects of the fall of 34-year Left Front regime in West Bengal in 2011 were the one against the Tata Motor’s small car project at Singur in Hooghly district and the one at Nandigram in East Midnapore district against the proposed chemical hub project by Indonesia-based Salim Group.
At that point in time, sometime in 2007, Singur was a more high-profile movement catching the attention of the international media because of the involvement of the Tata Group and also because that movement was being led by the former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the then- principal Opposition face against late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left Front government in West Bengal.
However, according political analysts, the true game changer creating mass abhorrence of voters throughout West Bengal towards CPI(M)-led Left Front was because of the developments at Nandigram, especially after the police firing on March 14, 2007, in which 14 persons involved in the anti-land acquisition movement was killed.
While Mamata Banerjee continued leading the Singur movement from the forefront, she left the responsibility of the Nandigram movement on her then trusted lieutenant, Suvendu Adhikari, who is now all set to become the first Chief Minister of a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in West Bengal since Independence.
The task of Adhikari to hold the fort in Nandigram was really challenging then.
The first challenge was that Nandigram was then virtually surrounded from all sides by the dedicated cadre force of the CPI(M) led by the then three-time Lok Sabha member from Tamluk, Lakshman Chandra Seth, who was then the final word in the entire Tamluk region, including Nandigram.
His second challenge was the administrative pressure to continue with the anti-land acquisition movement, with a huge police contingent also cordoning Nandigram from all sides.
However, in the middle of all these odds, Adhikari kept the movement alive by successfully uniting the villagers at Nandigram to cut away all the approach-ways to the epicentre of the movement and preventing the police forces and CPI(M) from entering Nandigram.
Adhikari at the same time successfully mobilised support from some ultra-left groups to keep the Nandigram movement alive.
Finally on March 14, 2007, the police firing happened killing 14 villagers. That was the beginning of the first symbols of collapse of the 34-year Left Front regime in West Bengal.
Following the police firing, the entire state erupted in protests with intellectuals, celebrities and prominent members of the civil society leading the protests on the streets.
Then came the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, where Congress and Trinamool Congress contested in alliance against the Left Front. Adhikari was nominated as the Trinamool Congress candidate from Tamluk Lok Sabha and in that election he defeated CPI(M)’s Lakshman Chandra Seth by a massive margin of more than 1.70 lakh votes.
Since then, there was no looking back for him. He got re-elected from Tamluk Lok Sabha again in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. However, before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee wanted Adhikari as a member of the West Bengal Cabinet and in 2016, he successfully contested from Nandigram Assembly constituency and thereafter became the state Transport Minister.
As the state Transport Minister, he successfully ran the show by adopting several steps to improve the state-run transport system in West Bengal. He is credited with the initiative of introducing fuel-efficient and environment friendly electric-buses in the different state transport corporations.
At that point in time, Adhikari was considered as the most trusted lieutenant of the then Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. However, his differences with both the party leadership and Mamata Banerjee started surfacing since 2019, especially before the Lok Sabha polls that year, when she allowed her nephew and party Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee to take all important party organisational decisions and even influencing the decisions of the state Cabinet, which prompted several old-timers in Trinamool Congress, including feeling ignored and betrayed.
The differences between Adhikari and the Trinamool Congress leadership widened further after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP achieved its best ever electoral performance in West Bengal by winning from 18 of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal.
Adhikari then openly criticised flawed political policies on part of Trinamool Congress and flawed administrative policies of the state government as the reasons behind BJP’s meteoric electoral success in West Bengal.
Then in 2020, Abhishek Banerjee, roped in Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) as Trinamool Congress vote strategy agency. However, instead of operating as a vote-strategy agency of the party, I-PAC started influencing important administrative decisions in a number of Ministries, including that of Adhikari, which was beyond his limits to succumb.
Finally, before the 2021 Assembly election, Adhikari resigned both as a member of the state Cabinet as well as a legislator and joined the BJP in presence of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
He contested as the BJP candidate in 2021 from his native constituency of Nandigram and emerged as the giant killer by defeating the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who contested as a Trinamool Congress candidate from Nandigram.
Later, Mamata Banerjee got elected in a by-election from Bhabanipur and retained her chair as the Chief Minister for the third consecutive term.
However, in 2021, with BJP finishing the tally with just 77 MLAs, Adhikari became the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
As the Leader of the Opposition, he became extremely active in moving around throughout the state organising mass movement on burning issues like cash-for-jobs, atrocities over Hindus, women harassment at Sandeshkhali and finally the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises.
In all his public meetings at that point of time, Suvendu Adhikari launched scathing attacks against Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, and described the duo as the pillars of the “corrupt regime” in West Bengal.
At the same time, whenever the Assembly was in session, he continued with the same attacks against Mamata Banerjee within the floor of the House. Because of aggressive verbal attacks within the House, he was also suspended from the House a number of times by the erstwhile Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay.
However, despite his suspension, Adhikari carried out his protests leading the other BJP legislators within the Assembly premises, though he could not step on the floor of the House.
At the same time, what he silently did was making the BJP’s organisation strength extremely watertight not just in his native constituency of Nandigram but in the entire East Midnapore district.
His efforts reaped fruits for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Although the BJP’s seat tally in West Bengal in 2024 came down to just 12 in 2024 from 18 in 2019, BJP candidates won from both the Lok Sabha constituencies of Tamluk and Kanthi in East Midnapore district, which were absolutely Trinamool Congress fortresses since 2009.
From Tamluk, the winning BJP candidate was the former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, while from Kanthi, the winning BJP candidate was Adhikari’s younger brother, Soumendu Adhikari.
From 2009 to 2024, the sitting MP from Kanthi was Adhikari’s father and most-respected veteran politician from the district, Sishir Adhikari.
Even in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, BJP candidate emerged victorious from all the 16 Assembly constituencies in East Midnapore district.
Finally, when the results of the Assembly elections were declared on May 4, BJP ended the tally winning from 207 constituencies, reducing the Trinamool Congress to just 80.
Adhikari got elected from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur, and Mamata Banerjee had to again face defeat by a margin of more than 15,000 votes from Bhabanipur.
Being the giant-killer by defeating a sitting Chief Minister twice, first in 2021 and then in 2024, Suvendu Adhikari, virtually became the unanimous choice as the Chief Minister of the first BJP-ruled government in West Bengal since Independence.
Finally, on Friday, Home Minister Amit Shah gave seal to Adhikari’s name as an unanimously accepted leader of BJP’s Legislative Party in West Bengal Assembly and hence the next Chief Minister.