Not power-hungry: Suvendu on biggest day in pol career

Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari on Monday helped decimate a party, which his father Sisir Adhikari—the family patriarch—had helped form.

Once Mamata Banerjee's trusted lieutenant, who worked with her to end the Left's 34-year term in office, Suvendu worked against her for five years and five months, ever since he defected to the BJP, to end her 15-year term in office. For the BJP, he delivered when it mattered the most.



Asked if he is the BJP's CM candidate, Adhikari said, "What? There is no change in me. I was in office and out of office as well, there is no change in me. I am not power-hungry." Late in the evening, he was asked to fly to Delhi to meet the party leadership.

So far, only one Bengal chief minister has been from East Midnapore—Ajoy Mukherjee, who became the CM thrice in the 1967-71 phase.

Suvendu not only won Nandigram and Bhowanipore but he also slogged relentlessly for party candidates. He put everything at stake this poll, giving back to Banerjee what she gave him in 2021. He contested from his home turf, Nandigram, and also dared to enter Banerjee's lair, Bhowanipore, for a Battle Royale.

The initial days of Suvendu's journey with the BJP showed an inherent complexity. Being not from the RSS or the BJP's ideological tradition, having spent the majority of his political career within the Trinamool, his jersey switch was not easy. This led to visible tension between leaders who were with the BJP through its years of building the party organisation and was amplified by the public unease over the way Dilip Ghosh was moved out of West Midnapore. But Suvendu made amends quickly. His sandesh diplomacy with Ghosh in his Bengal Assembly chambers, his public statement that he isn't an "insider in BJP ranks but is devoted to the party no less", and the sheer effort he put in for the party helped bridge the gap.

Before the 2026 fight, the first changes came from within. After the 2021 elections, he was not only the Nandigram MLA but also Bengal's Leader of the Opposition. Slipping into his new role, he started speaking for nationalist Muslims and training his guns on Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators. For the past five years, his political pitch largely focused on people's issues—corruption, misgovernance, lack of jobs opportunities, brain drain and Hindutva. Suvendu remained unrelenting in his attacks.

In the first few hours of counting on Monday morning, he said, "All Hindus are united in favour of Narendra Modi. After four rounds of counting, BJP is forming a govt. Hindu EVMs mean BJP, Muslim EVMs mean TMC—except in Malda, Murshidabad, and North Dinajpur, where [Muslim] people have voted for Congress."

What also helped Suvendu was his work rhythm with party president Samik Bhattacharya. Both spoke in a singular voice—Suvendu forcibly, and Bhattacharya resonating it articulately. Long before the 2026 polls, his message was simple: The BJP is winning Bengal.