"poori janta ubhar parihae" :::::: Suvendu Adhikari - a story of Rising Stardom and the hard way ... "Giant Killer ... Twice" .... ::: His dad Shishir Adhikari would often call his son 'stubborn' and "perhaps more religious than me

Suvendu Adhikari sworn in as new chief minister of West Bengal. 

Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul take oath as Ministers. 

Suvendu can today certainly make his father Shishir Adhikari proud. 

"Today is the real independence that Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had envisioned" - Dinesh Trivedi  

"As Amit Shahji said, we have been able to overcome bhoy with bhorosha.”

“Not 46 per cent (the BJP’s vote share), we must bring more than 60 per cent of the people to us in the next election by working positively, implementing the resolutions, fulfilling Modiji’s dream. We must bring mothers and sisters to our side. We must create a Sonar Bangla.” -- Suvendu Adhikari said on Friday. 

Amit Shah said: 

“Now infiltration and cow smuggling will become impossible in West Bengal.” 

Suvendu can boast two giant-killing acts in his political career - having helped Mamata Banerjee end the Left’s 34-year rule in 2011 and then in 2026  ousting his mentor Mamata herself.  

Video link  

Mid way... he trounced Bengal's mercurial mass leader twice - in Nandgram in 2021 and then in Bhabanipur in 2026. 

                                 Suvendu Adhikari during the 2007 Nandigram agitation ( snap - The Telegraph) 

Shishir Adhikari (former Union MoS Rural Development) 

I - as Spl. Representative to 'The Statesman' accompanied another journalist colleague from another newspaper used to interact with Shishir Adhikari regularly.  Then he was Minister of State for R.D under Manmohan Singh --- UPA-2. Of course, he was fond of his son and always thought Suvendu would make big.  

 

But he would admit at times -- "I am afraid things are not happening as per his expectations". The Adhikaris - father-son duo had contributed a lot by finance and hard labour to make Mamata's agitation in Singur and Nandigram successful. 

Reportedly, the senior Adhikari never spoke clearly about those. 

"Ei shob hoe .... These things happen in politics and social service. But I know what exactly happened. That area was between the son and his mother," Shishir Adhikari said once. 

Like many or all TMC leaders, Shishir Adhikari too was a Mamata-loyalist and a hardcore that way. He said once the Trinamool has national ambition and "for us, under Mamata Banerjee and with her face, sky is the limit". (the interview was reported in 'The Statesman). 

He was also assertive kind of a personality. Few months before TMC walked out of the UPA over the issue of FDI, Shishir Adhikari and other TMC ministers had called on to PM Manmohan Singh. 

Apparently, they were not happy with the kind of 'cold treatment' they were getting from the Finance ministry and the Govt as a whole. Adhikari was most vocal in that meeting and he even told PM : "Mr Prime Minister, if you do not listen to us; we will tell our leader in Kolkata not to listen to anything else".   

Shishir Adhikari would often call his son 'stubborn' and "perhaps more religious than me ... he has picked up that from his mother". 

Former Union Minister and now High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, says, "This victory and swearing in is not for a party... poori janta ubhar pari hae".  

"Today is the real independence that Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had envisioned" 

"When India became independent and the independence that Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had seen, in real sense, today Bengal is getting that independence and has got it ... and that is why today the entire public has come out in large numbers...

"This is the result of the hard work of BJP workers and Union Home Minister Amit Shah".   

****  

What went in favour of Suvendu to be elected as BJP legislative party leader ...  

** He is known as a decisive leader.

** The BJP hopes he can steer the new government (Double Engine sarkar)

as it goes about fulfilling the primary promises of the BJP.

*** Bangadeshi Muslim immigrants issue will get top priority

*** All eyes will be there on how soon, West Bengal gets Uniform Civil Code (UCC).  Two BJP-ruled states Uttarakhand and Gujarat already have it. 

Suvendu was prominently named in the Saradha ponzi scheme and Narada cash-for-favours scams of 2013-16, with the saffron camp labelling him a “chor” (thief). He began to be probed by the central agencies.

Then came the biggest blow. After 2014, Mamata chose her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as her political heir, crushing the hopes of the ambitious protégé. 

After Suvendu’s defection in 2020, Mamata alleged he had jumped into the BJP’s “washing machine” to escape the agencies, and Trinamool portrayed him as a “traitor”.

Suvendu happens to be the first Bengal chief minister to come from the districts since Ajoy Mukherjee, also from East Midnapore, stepped down in 1971.

ends