NEW DELHI: From a powerful Congress family in East Midnapore’s Kanthi, Suvendu Adhikari started his political journey in Chhatra Parishad, the Congress student wing, before emerging as a poster boy of the Trinamool Congress and a close lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee during the 2006-07 land acquisition movement in Nandigram.
His father, Sisir Adhikari, served as a three-term MP and Union Minister of State for Rural Development during the UPA-2 government, while Suvendu himself served two terms as MP during UPA-1 and UPA-2. Adhikari quit the party and his ministerial post in December 2020, ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. He soon emerged as a prominent anti-Mamata face in the BJP and developed close ties with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
His relationship with the Trinamool leadership deteriorated steadily as the influence of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee grew within the organisation, particularly after he was made chief of the party’s youth wing.
After joining the BJP, Adhikari became the party’s most visible fighter against the Trinamool Congress. His stature rose sharply after he defeated Mamata Banerjee in the high-voltage Nandigram contest in 2021. In 2026, he repeated the feat in Bhabanipur, considered Mamata’s safest political fortress, defeating her by more than 15,000 votes while retaining Nandigram.
On Friday, the 56-year-old Leader of the Opposition in the last Assembly was chosen as the BJP legislature party leader, and the state’s first BJP chief minister, at a meeting chaired by Shah in Kolkata.
Though the BJP failed to form the government in 2021 and won 77 seats, Adhikari emerged as the party’s most aggressive voice against the Mamata government inside and outside the Assembly.
As Leader of the Opposition, Adhikari led legislative battles and street protests against the TMC regime, spearheading agitations over alleged post-poll violence, corruption, unemployment and law and order. He also repeatedly led protests during the 2023 panchayat elections and became a face of the BJP’s campaign over the Sandeshkhali unrest in 2024.
That turbulent phase was marked by repeated confrontations with the TMC establishment, during which Adhikari and several BJP legislators faced multiple suspensions from the Assembly.
