Union Home Minister Amit Shah had predicted that Suvendu Adhikari would defeat Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur, and his prediction came true on Monday evening. Adhikari, a former cabinet colleague of Mamata Banerjee, emerged as the vanquisher and is now the foremost contender for the state secretariat.
Adhikari, who retained Nandigram for the third time, was confident of his victory and wrote on X, "A new dawn for sonar Bangla (golden Bengal)". He had resigned from the government and the assembly in December 2020 to join the BJP.
Despite being charged in around 300 cases since 2021, Adhikari led a series of high-profile campaigns and advanced the party's efforts to reach out to voters in TMC bastions. He also canvassed for other candidates across Bengal over the last two months.
Adhikari's strategy of focusing on Bengal's 70.54% Hindu population and ignoring the 27.01% Muslims paid off, with the BJP securing a comfortable lead in many seats with high Muslim population.
