BJP's Suvendu Adhikari Sworn In as West Bengal Chief Minister; Party Honors Long-Time Associate

While the swearing-in ceremony of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday was major show of strength by the BJP, it also emerged as a platform to acknowledge the contributions of a long-time associate, Makhanlal Sarkar Sarkar, 97, was an aide of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee and has been associated with the organisation for several decades. In 1952, Sarkar was arrested in Kashmir while accompanying Mookerjee during the movement to hoist the tricolour in the Valley. Mookerjee’s yatra to Kashmir was part of a movement led by him to pressure the Centre to push for Jammu and Kashmir’s full integration with India. It was during the agitation that Mookerjee died of a cardiac arrest while being held in a cottage eight miles from Srinagar, giving rise to the popular slogan: “Jahaan hue balidaan Mookerjee, wo Kashmir hamara hai; jo Kashmir hamara hai, wo saare ka saara hai (Where Mookerjee was martyred, that Kashmir is ours; the Kashmir that is ours is the entire Kashmir)”. Sarkar, among the seniormost BJP workers in West Bengal, continues to work for the party and its organisation despite his age. He was among the early grassroots workers involved in nationalist mobilisation after Independence in 1947. He also played a key organisational role in expanding the BJP’s presence in the state from the 1980s onward. Sarkar worked in West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, helping enrol around 10,000 members within a year, and later served seven terms as the BJP’s district chief. He is a resident of Siliguri. Modi touching Sarkar’s feet was seen as a gesture reflecting the BJP’s emphasis on recognising the party’s old guard. Modi’s choice of proposers during his Varanasi election campaigns has similarly included senior RSS and BJP workers. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Modi had chosen Baijnath Patel, an RSS veteran who began his political journey with the Jana Sangh, as one of his proposers. In what the BJP described as a historic day for Bengal and the country, Adhikari was sworn in as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal. For 15 years, Bengal politics had been synonymous with Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee. The BJP now says the state has chosen a new direction. Five other MLAs — Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtonia, Kshudiram Tudu and Nisith Pramanik – also took oath as ministers in the Adhikari Cabinet. Apart from Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah , BJP national president Nitin Nabin, Union ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states attended the event.