The story of Suvendu Adhikari’s political journey is not just the story of one leader changing parties. It is also the story of ambition, alienation, power struggles, ideology, and the changing nature of politics in West Bengal.
The story goes back to July 21, 1993, one of the defining moments in Mamata Banerjee’s political journey. That was the day of the police firing during the “Writers’ Chalo” movement in Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, had led a massive protest march towards the Writers’ Building. The police opened fire on the demonstrators, and 13 people were killed. The incident shook Bengal politics and eventually became an emotional and political symbol for Mamata Banerjee and her 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 political significance. Over the years, it became one of the biggest annual political gatherings in Bengal, and even today, the party organises it on a massive scale.
Now, if we move forward to 2011, another important chapter begins, this time involving Suvendu Adhikari. That year, a huge gathering was organised at Brigade Parade Ground and Dharmatala under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership. The crowd was enormous. The atmosphere was emotionally charged. By then, Mamata Banerjee had already emerged as the central force against the Left Front government, and the momentum for change in Bengal was building rapidly.
At that time, Suvendu Adhikari was serving as the Youth Trinamool Congress president and had already become an important organisational figure within the Trinamool Congress ecosystem. He had played a major role in strengthening the party at the grassroots level, especially in East Midnapore and adjoining regions. But that very day, according to many who observed the internal dynamics closely, Suvendu experienced a deep sense of alienation.
Something changed within him. Though he was officially the Youth Trinamool Congress president, he felt he was gradually being pushed to the side-lines. The event management, stage announcements, and overall coordination were largely being handled by Kunal Ghosh, who at that time was extremely prominent within the party and very close to Mamata Banerjee politically.
Suvendu was present on the stage, but he reportedly felt as if he had no real role in the programme. Kunal Ghosh was making the announcements, directing the flow of the event, energising the crowd, and effectively conducting the entire gathering. Suvendu, despite holding an important organisational post, remained largely silent and inactive on stage. To many observers, it appeared as though he had been made to simply sit there while others controlled the proceedings.
For someone as politically ambitious and organisationally active as Suvendu Adhikari, that moment carried emotional weight. He felt insulted. Yet he did not react publicly.
Many leaders in similar situations might have voiced dissent immediately or created a scene. But Suvendu remained quiet that day. Outwardly, nothing happened. Internally, however, it seems that the first seeds of distance had already been planted. Suvendu reportedly felt that Kunal had become more important in the leadership hierarchy and that Mamata Banerjee herself had silently approved this arrangement. He did not protest publicly, but from that moment, a sense of hurt and wounded pride began to grow within him.
Why did Suvendu feel so isolated despite being surrounded by Mamata Banerjee, the party leadership, and the movement he had helped build? The answer lies partly in Mamata Banerjee’s politics itself. Mamata emerged from street movements, agitation politics, and direct mass mobilisation. She values absolute political loyalty and central control over the movement’s emotional narrative. Around her, political space is often tightly managed. At the same time, younger leaders with strong independent mass bases sometimes began competing, consciously or unconsciously, for visibility and influence within the party.
Suvendu always had a stubborn and self-respecting personality. Once something hurt him deeply, he found it difficult to forget it. That incident stayed with him. Then came another setback. Initially, Rajib Banerjee was supposed to become the Youth Trinamool Congress president. He had even reportedly been assured of the post. At that time, Rajib Banerjee was preparing to leave for an Australian tour and was even requested to postpone the trip. But eventually, in a last-minute change, Soumitra Khan was brought in, and Suvendu Adhikari was removed from that organisational space. For him, it became another major mental setback.
Around the same period, Mukul Roy was rapidly becoming one of the most powerful figures inside the Trinamool Congress organisation. Mukul Roy and his son, Subhrangshu Roy, became increasingly influential in youth and organisational politics. At that time, Abhishek Banerjee had not yet emerged as the dominant political force he would later become. Within the party, Mukul Roy’s importance was far greater.
Gradually, Suvendu began noticing a clear difference between himself and Mukul Roy. He felt he was moving towards becoming the number two leader in the party, but that political space was already occupied by Mukul Roy, who had become extremely close to Mamata Banerjee and controlled much of the party organisation across districts.
At one point, people would openly say, ‘Mamata Banerjee was the Chief Ministerial face, but Mukul Roy was the organisational head of the Trinamool Congress’.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Banerjee slowly started rising within the youth leadership structure. Inside the party, discussions had already begun over who would eventually emerge as Mamata Banerjee’s political heir, Mukul Roy or Abhishek Banerjee. A silent power struggle was visible between the two camps.
Eventually, Mukul Roy left for the BJP. Before that, BJP leaders had openly targeted him. During a rally at Dharmatala, BJP leaders had raised slogans like “Bhag Mamata Bhag, Bhag Mukul Bhag”. At that stage, however, there was still no situation where anyone would openly raise slogans against Abhishek Banerjee.
As these developments unfolded, Suvendu slowly realised that he might eventually have to leave the Trinamool Congress as well. BJP leaders had already started establishing contact with him. But his father, Sisir Adhikari, an old Congressman and seasoned politician, did not want Suvendu to leave the Trinamool and join the BJP.
Mamata Banerjee herself reportedly made repeated efforts to stop Suvendu from leaving the party. She even sought Sisir Adhikari’s help to resolve differences between her and Suvendu. Sisir initially tried to mediate and reduce tensions. But by then, the real conflict was no longer with Mamata directly; it was increasingly linked to Abhishek Banerjee’s growing influence within the party.
By this time, Mukul Roy had already become less important inside the Trinamool Congress and had moved closer to the BJP. As a Rajya Sabha MP facing multiple allegations, Mukul reportedly understood that without an understanding with the BJP, legal troubles could intensify. Many within political circles believed that this was one of the reasons why Mukul Roy eventually surrendered politically to the BJP.
Suvendu’s case was different. The BJP saw him not merely as another defector but as a potential alternative to Mamata Banerjee in Bengal politics. In many ways, BJP strategists believed Suvendu could become the face of anti-Mamata politics in Bengal just as decades earlier, leaders like L.K. Advani had once identified Mamata Banerjee herself as an alternative force against the Congress establishment.
Before finally leaving the Trinamool Congress, both Sisir Adhikari and Suvendu were still part of the party. Around that time, the Trinamool Congress organised a massive state conference in Digha. It was a grand political event, and Suvendu was one of its principal organisers. Since East Midnapore and Digha were considered strongholds of the Adhikari family, he expected recognition for the scale of the event.
But the conference gradually turned into what many described as more of a celebratory Trinamool fan gathering than an organisationally meaningful political programme. Even there, despite putting in enormous effort, Suvendu felt he was not receiving the importance he deserved. All these experiences together deepened his sense of alienation from the party leadership.
At that time, Suvendu was still relatively young. The Trinamool Congress had been founded in 1998, and by the time he eventually joined the BJP in December 2020, a long internal political journey had already unfolded.
Party-switching in Indian politics is not new. It has happened repeatedly across decades. During the Vajpayee-Advani era, several prominent Congress leaders, including K.C. Pant, son of Govind Ballabh Pant and former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, he entered the BJP. So Suvendu Adhikari’s transition was not unprecedented.
But every political transition is different. Some leaders join a new party and never fully adjust. Others merge so completely into their new political identity that people eventually forget where they originally came from. Sushma Swaraj, for example, began her political career in the Lok Dal-Janata Party tradition under Devi Lal, yet later became one of the BJP’s most iconic leaders.
Suvendu Adhikari’s political roots were originally in Congress and Trinamool politics, although he had some indirect association with RSS circles during his younger days. His real political rise came during the Nandigram movement, where he emerged as one of the central figures against land acquisition and police action. The handling of the Nandigram agitation transformed him into a mass leader in Bengal politics.
When Suvendu officially joined the BJP on December 19, 2020, in the presence of Amit Shah, it marked a major political turning point in Bengal. Then came the 2021 Assembly election, where he defeated Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram and later became the Leader of the Opposition.
After joining the BJP, he gradually moved much closer to the RSS ecosystem. One of the most discussed moments came when he attended a major RSS gathering wearing the RSS uniform, known as ganabesh. This was seen as politically significant because RSS events of that level do not usually give prominence to leaders without an organisational RSS background.
Later, on July 25, 2023, he again attended another major RSS event associated with Mohan Bhagwat. Many observers interpreted this as a sign that the RSS had fully accepted him within the broader Sangh Parivar structure.
Over time, Suvendu Adhikari emerged as one of the strongest Hindutva voices in West Bengal BJP politics. Today, he speaks openly and aggressively on issues like polarisation, citizenship, infiltration, and Bangladesh. On these matters, his line closely reflects the ideological preferences of the BJP-RSS central leadership.
Suvendu Adhikari, meanwhile, was steadily becoming a powerful regional force in his own right. His organisational capabilities, especially in Nandigram and rural Bengal, gave him substantial political weight. Over time, differences began emerging between Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu on several issues. political style, organisational authority, internal power equations, and the growing role of Abhishek Banerjee within the party structure.
By 2011, those tensions were perhaps not fully visible to the public. But in hindsight, many Trinamool insiders now look back at that Brigade and Dharmatala gathering as an early emotional turning point. A moment when Suvendu Adhikari first began to feel that, despite his contributions, he was no longer fully at the centre of the political space he had helped create. Years later, that distance would widen dramatically. And eventually, it would reshape Bengal politics itself.
But Bengal politics has always carried another layer, Bengali identity, pluralism, and cultural heterogeneity. That raises a larger political question: how far will hyper-Hindutva politics be accepted in Bengal’s social and cultural framework? There are debates around this even now.
Still, within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, Suvendu has firmly consolidated his position.
Interestingly, outside politics, he remains deeply rooted in Bengali cultural habits. He is known to be a great lover of fish and a generous host. Even during his time in Delhi as a minister, fish would regularly arrive from Kolkata for meals at his residence. The Adhikari family is widely regarded as warm and hospitable.
Yet, the central political question remains unresolved: how much of Suvendu Adhikari’s hardline Hindutva politics will ultimately be accepted by Bengal’s broader social fabric? That is something only time and elections can answer.
