BJP's Go-to Man in Bengal

Suvendu Adhikari, the most popular Opposition leader, is rallying resources to defeat the TMC and carry the momentum into 2026

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

That only a strong leader—feared and respected in equal measure— can bridge differences between rivals in his party was evident in a BJP roadshow in the Naihati assembly segment of the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal on May 10. Sharing space on the lead vehicle was BJP’s Barrackpore candidate Arjun Singh and its West Bengal Mahila Morcha chief Phalguni Patra. Patra, a resident of Barrackpore, was an aspirant for the nomination before it went to Singh, who had won the seat for the BJP in 2019 before rejoining the Trinamool Congress in 2022. After he was dropped from the TMC’s list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Singh returned to the saffron camp and was given the ticket. Needless to say, Patra didn’t like it. But the glue that prompted both to present a unified front that afternoon was there with them atop the car—leader of the opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who spotted Patra in the crowd and asked her to hop on.