What difference Suvendu Adhikari make for BJP?
He joined the Lotus party in December 2020. But as they say -when he walked, he did not walk alone.
A good organiser and who was asset to Mamata Banerjee since Singur-Nandigram days; took the 'karyakartas' machine with him.
He had solid booth networks right from TMC days, the panchayat contacts, the district loyalty chains built across Purba Medinipur over decades.
The operational ecosystems was magial. But Suvendu did not bank on any data consultancy agency. It was an ear on ground leader.
In 2026 assembly polls; the Lotus party swept all 16 Assembly seats in Purba Medinipur. Mamata's score was zero. In 2021, they had shared the district.
Well, it may sound exaggeration. but analysts say --- the swing was not ideology nor party-based polarisation. While a strong Hindu wave could not be denied; there was also a personal loyalty network changing sides.
Mamata for reasons best known to her started sidelining Suvendu right from 2011.
In circa 2011, surprising many Abhishek Banerjee, then only 24, was named president of 'All India Trinamool Yuva'.
Actually, there was no such necessity. It was a new and parallel youth organisation created alongside the TMC Youth Congress that was then headed by Suvendu.
Even the TMC constitution had no place for two youth wings.
Mukul Roy, now deceased, had opposed the idea.
As expected Suvendu was furious:
"It was done just to keep me in check. Where was the nephew when Nandigram was burning? I was there fighting alone."
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| 2011 - snap and 'record of history' : Suvendu's unhappiness can be gauged |
Mamata did not stop at that. In 2014, Suvendu was removed as TMC Youth Congress president.
Months later, TMC Yuva was merged with the Youth Congress, absorbing the structure he had built into Abhishek's institutional control.
Sensing that Suvendu was in talks with the Congress to switch parties, Mamata brought him back in 2016.
He was given three cabinet portfolios and made TMC observer in Malda and Murshidabad. Essentially, his job was to weaken and break the Congress strongholds there. That was a golden opportunity, the Congress party missed out to tap a potential leader such as Suvendu.
But for his part, Suvendu delivered and could poach Congress in both the districts.
Around 2021 January, Mukul Roy said Suvendu was 'used by Mamata' and he could strengthen the TMC party around 2016-17.
Suvendu was used.
But the BJP had gained grounds. In 2019, Lok Sabha polls, Mamata was shell-shocked as the saffron outfit won 18 seats. She grew nervous.
The observer posts for districts were abolished, including the specific organisational role of Suvendu in North Bengal.
One analyst rightly says - ".... between Suvendu and Mamata Banerjee; he was the injured tiger. Because there was always element of betrayal. Suvendu's successful and institutional authority had been removed one piece at a time, each time after he had delivered.
In corporate work culture menace, Mamata was typically a leader who would not like a performing colleague continue with the good work".
December 19, 2020: Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP
Suvendu later described the TMC as a "private limited company" -- this was a sincere "diagnosis" of the malady and not a simple political attack. In contrast, the BJP always gave him importance. Amit Shah himself came for the rally where Suvendu joined the Lotus party.
Dec 19, 2020 : When Suvendu joined BJP
Bringing an end to all speculation, days after quitting Trinamool Congress, a key 'mass leader' in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday joined BJP in presence of Union Home Minister and the saffron party's chief architect of organisational growth - Amit Shah.
"Slogan of any party is always good; but with the Trinamool, the cherished slogan of Ma, Mati and Manush was transformed into politics of Tolabaaz (corruption and extortion), appeasement (of Muslims) and a politics that gave unbridled authorities to her Bhaipo (nephew)", Shah had said that day in presence of leaders such as Dilip Ghosh, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy.
Wrap up
In 2026, Suvendu Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by 15,105 votes and retained Nandigram by 9,665 votes, up from his 2021 margin of just 1,956.
He took oath as the 9th Chief Minister of West Bengal and obviously the first BJP Chief Minister in the state's history.
Well, the collapse of TMC's dominance in 2026 cannot be understood only through BJP expansion or anti incumbency.
A major structural reason was that the political machinery which once made Mamata Banerjee unbeatable had, over nine years of deliberate marginalisation, shifted against her.
And she did not know that. Guided by I-PAC she placed faith on wrong issues.
ends
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