HYDERABAD, May 10 — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders attended the oath-taking ceremony of West Bengal state’s chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in Kolkata on Saturday.
Adhikari, aged 57, is the first BJP chief minister of the eastern state bordering Bangladesh, where the Hindu nationalist party’s rise is being keenly watched.
State governor R.N. Ravi administered the oath of office to the new chief minister.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other top BJP leaders and chief ministers were among those attending the event.
The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, ending three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in the state of 100 million people.
