SUVENDU Adhikari has taken oath as West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister — less than six years after he switched over from the Trinamool Congress (TMC). He has been rewarded for defeating TMC supremo and three-term CM Mamata Banerjee in her bastion, Bhabanipur (Adhikari also won the Nandigram battle against her in the 2021 Assembly elections, even though the BJP had finished a distant second). His elevation is in sync with the BJP’s strategy of promoting turncoats to make inroads into states where its traditional cadre base has been weak. From Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam to Samrat Choudhary in Bihar, the party has reposed faith in leaders known for their grassroots influence. Adhikari now joins this club of powerful converts who have become central to the BJP’s expansion mission. In Punjab, which will go to the polls in barely 10 months, the party has former Congress leaders Sunil Jakhar and Ravneet Bittu among its ranks, besides AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs who defected recently.
The BJP’s growing dominance is prompting its vanquished rivals to rethink their go-solo policy. Mamata Banerjee has called for a “joint platform” of Opposition parties, student unions and NGOs to resist the saffron surge. She seems to have finally realised that a fragmented INDIA bloc cannot match the BJP’s might.
The Congress-DMK rupture in Tamil Nadu has laid bare the conflict between regional and national priorities. The dual challenge for Opposition parties is to keep their flock together and present a united front. The BJP’s relentless efforts to weaken regional forces are already putting the national alliance under great strain. The trend is set to gain momentum if there is little or no pushback from parties whose very survival is at stake.
