Ahmedabad Times

Suvendu Adhikari, the chief of opposition in West Bengal meeting, who defeated chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her house constituency Bhabanipur on Monday, has emerged because the front-runner for the chief ministerial submit after the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) swept the meeting polls within the japanese state, occasion functionaries stated.

The BJP received the West Bengal meeting polls for the primary time on Monday, profitable 206 of the state’s 293 seats for which counting passed off. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) received (or was main from) 81 seats.

BJP leaders, nevertheless, stated the occasion has not dominated out names of state unit chief Samik Bhattacharya and vice-president Agnimitra Paul as different possible CM face. Paul received from Asansol Dakshin on Monday.

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Adhikari, in response to a senior BJP functionary, might be rewarded for defeating Mamata Banerjee not as soon as, however twice — this time by a margin of 15,105 votes in Bhabanipur. He had additionally defeated Banerjee from Nandigram in 2021 polls, by 1,956 votes. “He has been unrelenting towards Mamata since he left the TMC in 2020,” stated a senior Bengal BJP chief, requesting anonymity. In return, the chief added, the TMC authorities had slapped round 300 circumstances towards Adhikari.

On April 2, when Adhikari filed his nomination papers from Kolkata’s Bhabanipur seat, Union house minister Amit Shah, accompanied him, indicating the occasion’s prime brass was behind him. Shah had then stated, “Mamata received the final election, however she was defeated by Suvendu Adhikari. This yr, Mamata will lose throughout Bengal in addition to in Bhabanipur.”

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One other senior BJP chief identified that not like the Lok Sabha polls, the occasion by no means fielded any candidate from two meeting seats in current historical past. “For Adhikari, this was a take a look at of his charisma and functionality as chief of the opposition,” the chief stated, additionally declining to be named.

In BhabanipurAdhikari obtained 73,917 votes as towards 58,812 for Mamata Banerjee. Adhikari additionally received the Nandigram seat towards TMC’s Pabitra Kar by a margin of 9,665 votes. “This can be a historic victory… a victory of Hindutva, a victory of Bengal, a victory of Modiji,” Adhikari advised reporters, holding his profitable certificates exterior the Sakhawat Memorial Faculty counting centre in Kolkata.

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BJP functionaries stated that Agnimitra Paul can also be within the race and will turn into an excellent candidate for the highest submit ought to the occasion determine to again a lady CM. Paul was a Lok Sabha MP from 2019 to 2024. Samik Bhattacharya, the functionaries identified, might be thought of as underneath his management the occasion received the primary meeting polls in Bengal. Bhattacharya is at present a member of the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP is prone to name a gathering of all newly-elected legislators in Kolkata within the subsequent few days. Nonetheless, occasion leaders stated there was no readability on when the occasion will name a legislative occasion assembly to elect its chief, who can be the chief minister.

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“We predict the occasion to call an observer for holding the legislative occasion assembly within the subsequent few days. As soon as that’s accomplished, the ball will begin rolling to kind the BJP authorities within the state,” a 3rd BJP chief stated.

Adhikari, who held a number of portfolios within the Mamata Banerjee-led cupboard, switched from the TMC to the BJP in December 2020. Shah had welcomed him within the occasion at a rally.

BJP leaders stated Adhikari had carried out a high-profile marketing campaign throughout the state previously two months. A BJP chief stated Adhikari formed the occasion marketing campaign in 2025 by publicly declaring that the BJP ought to deal with Bengal’s 70.54 % Hindu voters and ignore the round 27% Muslims.

Muslim voters play a decisive function in a minimum of 120 of Bengal’s 294 meeting seats. The BJP received solely 77 of those in 2021. The occasion fielded 9 Muslim candidates however none received.

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“Within the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, we secured 38% votes. These are all Hindu votes. If 10% extra Hindus vote for us, we are going to oust Mamata Banerjee subsequent yr,” he stated at a rally in East Midnapore in January final yr.

On Monday, the BJP secured a snug victory in lots of seats with excessive Muslim inhabitants, similar to Malda, Murshidabad, Howrah, Kolkata and Birbhum.