West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) took the oath as an MLA of the Bhabanipur Assembly seat in the State Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Adhikari had contested and won both the Nandigram and Bhabanipur Assembly seats in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

“Someone else will be elected as MLA from Nandigram [in a bypoll]. But I will not let the people there feel my absence. I will fulfil all development promises I made to the people of Nandigram alongside the rest of the state,” Mr. Adhikari told media persons at the Assembly premises.

The Chief Minister also recalled the tenure of Firoja Bibi, the mother of a martyr in the 2008 Nandigram police firing and a Trinamool Congress MLA from 2009-2016. Mr. Adhikari said that he had provided all the support to her and will play a similar role for people of Nadigram.

Mr. Adhikari had defeated former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur by a margin of 15,115 votes. At Nandigram, he defeated Trinamool Congress Pabitra Kar by a margin of 9,665 votes.

The decision to choose Bhabanipur over Nandigram assumes significance as the victory at Bhabanipur is considered a bigger electoral victory than Nandigram. The development also makes Suvendu Adhikari a representative of the electorate in Kolkata. So far, he had always represented people of Purba Medinipur.

Later in the evening, Mr. Adhikari participated in an “Abhinandan Yatra” in the Bhabanipur area along with other BJP leaders. The Chief Minister said it was not a victory procession but a procession to thank people of the constituency at the instructions of State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya. The procession in which the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari accepted greetings from the people in an open vehicle started from Chetla and went past Kalighat near the residence of former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mr. Adhikari was joined by several BJP leaders, including Sishir Bajoria.

During the day, along with the Chief Minister, several other MLAs who won the 2026 Assembly polls were administered an oath by the Pro-term. A total of 144 MLAs took an oath on the first day of the swearing-in ceremony at the West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday.

“Today, 150 MLAs were scheduled to take an oath, but six did not turn up, citing various reasons,” Roy told reporters. MLAs from 12 districts, including nine districts of north Bengal and Murshidabad, took oath in the State Assembly today.

| Video Credit: PTI