Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister-designate Suvendu Adhikari felicitated and sought the blessings of Makhanlal Sarkar, one of the senior most BJP workers in West Bengal.

97-year-old Sarkar, a resident of Siliguri, was the aide of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. He was arrested by the Delhi Police for singing a nationalist song and refused to apologise for the same in court. Instead, he sang the same song in the Court. The judge asked to get him a first class ticket back home and gave him Rs 100 for his journey.

At Kolkata's Parade Ground, PM Narendra Modi received a rousing welcome from thousands of supporters as he drove into the venue with Suvendu Adhikari by his side.

On the stage, Union Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of several states and party allies were present.

First visuals this morning from the historic Brigade Parade Ground in the heart of Kolkata, the venue of Adhikari's oath event, show a backdrop cut out in the traditional chalchitra style.

It features everything that is quintessentially Bengali: An idol of Goddess Durga, central to Bengal's religious identity, the Kalighat temple, one of the 51 Shaktipeetha dedicated to Goddess Kali, dhaak - a traditional drum, and the dhunuchi nach, a devotional dance performed with burning coconut husk in an earthen pot.

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Massive crowds of supporters descended upon Kolkata's Parade Ground ahead of Suvendu Adhikari's swearing-in as the chief minister.

Outside the ground, vendors sold jhal muri, a popular snack that became synonymous with the BJP's electoral campaign.

Suvendu Adhikari had already made it clear that he will not operate like his predecessor Mamata Banerjee by dumping all his decisions on the members of his Cabinet and instead run the show on the basis of "collective leadership".

"It will not be 'I' who will govern the state. It will be 'we' who will be governing the state. At the same time, the state will be governed through smooth Centre-state relationship and coordination," Adhikari said.

Long before television studios began decoding electoral optics and social media turned politics into a perpetual spectacle, Bengal measured political strength through human tides surging into the Brigade Parade Ground.

Since 1950s, the sprawling field in the heart of Kolkata has witnessed international political luminaries like Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez attending functions.

It appears that the once military parade ground of the British is ready to witness an ideological transition in Bengal's turbulent political history.

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Union Home minister Amit Shah will soon reach Kolkata Brigade Parade Ground, where Suvendu Adhikari will take oath as the ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Among others who arrived in Kolkata for the ceremony were Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya), N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat) and Samrat Choudhary (Bihar).

Union Ministers Ram Mohan Naidu, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jayant Chaudhary will also attend the ceremony.

Security was tightened across key locations in Kolkata ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the first BJP government in West Bengal, including at the residence of chief minister-designate Suvendu Adhikari in Chinar Park, Brigade Parade Grounds and outside former CM Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence.

Security arrangements were also intensified at the RCTC Ground, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to land before attending the ceremony.

A multi-layered security apparatus, including central forces and Kolkata Police personnel, was put in place at Brigade Parade Grounds, the venue of the swearing-in ceremony.

After the oath ceremony, the new Cabinet members, led by Suvendu Adhikari will take charge of the administration at the old state secretariat of Writers' Buildings in central Kolkata, instead of Nabanna at Mandirtala in Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district, which became the new state secretariat during the previous Trinamool Congress-ruled and Mamata Banerjee-led state government.

Nabanna was originally designed and projected during the Left Front regime as a garments' hub. However, just two years after coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee, in 2013 decided to shift the state secretariat to Nabanna, reportedly following the advice of her personal astrologer.

Accordingly, the new state secretariat started functioning from Nabanna from October 5, 2013. However, with the BJP now in power in the state, it had decided to bring back the state secretariat to historical Writers' Building where from all the Chief Ministers of West Bengal prior to Mamata Banerjee, starting from late Prafulla Chandra Ghosh to late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had operated from.

West Bengal chief minister-elect Suvendu Adhikari paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary, describing the Nobel laureate as an "eternal star" in the sky of Bengali literature and culture.

In a post on X, he said Tagore's "immortal creations, humanitarian philosophy, and patriotism" have guided people through the ages.

"May human civilisation advance, inspired by the great message, 'Where the mind is without fear, and the head held high'. On the poet-sage's birth anniversary, I pay my humble tribute to him," Adhikari said.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls emerged as one of the most politically contentious issues in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.

Post-election data released by the Election Commission paints a far more complex picture. The numbers suggest that while there were indeed large-scale deletions of "ineligible" electors during the SIR process, there were also equally significant additions of eligible voters before nominations closed.

More importantly, many of the constituencies that saw the highest deletions eventually voted in favour of the very parties that had opposed the SIR process most aggressively.

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The year was 1993. On July 21, in the heart of Kolkata, police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. Thirteen people were killed. The march had been led by Mamata Banerjee, then a Young Congress leader, towards the Writers' Building as part of the "Writers' Chalo" movement. The incident shook Bengal politics to its core and would go on to become one of the most enduring emotional symbols of Mamata Banerjee's political movement.

Since then, every year, Mamata has observed July 21 as Shahid Dibas - Martyrs' Day. Even after the formation of the Trinamool Congress, the event continued to grow in scale and significance. Over the years, it became one of the biggest annual political gatherings in Bengal.

The story of Suvendu Adhikari - one of Bengal's most consequential political figures of recent times - begins 18 years later, in 2011.

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Suvendu Adhikari got elected simultaneously from his native Nandigram assembly constituency in East Midnapore district and Bhabanipur assembly constituency in South Kolkata. At Bhabanipur, he defeated his predecessor and the former chief minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

Adhikari first earned the 'giant-killer' tag in the 2021 Assembly elections after defeating Banerjee from Nandigram.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah officially announced Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal on Fridau, marking the beginning of the state's first-ever Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government since Independence.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Shah with newly elected BJP legislators following the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, whose results were declared on May 4.

In the meeting, Adhikari's name was officially endorsed as the leader of the BJP's legislature party in the West Bengal Assembly, which means that he will be the next Chief Minister of the state.

"The process of selecting the leader of the party's legislative party in the state assembly has been completed. A total of eight proposals were received. In all the proposals, there was just one name. Enough time was given for any proposal for a second name. But no second name was proposed. So, I proposed the name of Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal," HM Shah said in the meeting.

West Bengal will get its first BJP chief minister as Governor RN Ravi administers the oath to Suvendu Adhikari at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground.

Adhikari will become the ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal succeeding Mamata Banerjee, who had occupied the Chair for the last 15 years since 2011.

The oath ceremony will be conducted on Saturday, which coincides with the birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore as per the Bengali calendar.