Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal on Saturday at a grand ceremony held at the Brigade Parade Grounds in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states, and senior BJP leaders.

Five ministers were also sworn in during the ceremony attended by Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik, and Kshudiram Tudu.

Who is Dilip Ghosh?

Dilip Ghosh is a 61-year-old veteran BJP leader and former state party president. A long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, Ghosh played a key role in expanding the BJP’s grassroots network in Bengal after 2014.

He served as the Member of Parliament from the Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency and has spent decades working within the RSS organisation. Between 1999 and 2007, he served as the RSS in-charge for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and worked closely with former RSS chief K S Sudarshan.

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In 2014, as the BJP intensified its push to expand in eastern India following the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level, Ghosh was inducted into the Bengal BJP organisation as general secretary. A year later, he was appointed the party’s West Bengal president at a time when the BJP was still considered a fringe player in the state’s politics.

In 2016, he ended the Congress party’s long-standing dominance in Kharagpur Sadar by defeating veteran MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal. Ghosh later vacated the Assembly seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019. He returned to state politics after losing his parliamentary bid in 2024.

Ghosh contested the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections from the Kharagpur Sadar constituency, returning to the seat where he first delivered a major electoral breakthrough for the BJP.

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The saffron party secured 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress' 15-year rule in the state.