The humble jhalmuri took centre stage as Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday took oath as the first BJP chief minister of Bengal and soon after him senior leader and the party's former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh took oath as a minister in the new cabinet.
BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik and Kshudiram Tudu were also administered the oath as ministers.
It marks a watershed moment that has redrawn Bengal’s political landscape after decades of resistance to saffron politics.
Bengal Governor R.N. Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Adhikari at a grand ceremony in Brigade Parade Grounds in central Kolkata, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states and senior BJP leaders.
The BJP chose Brigade Parade Grounds – once the citadel of massive Left rallies and later a key battleground of the TMC – for the swearing-in ceremony.
Thousands of BJP supporters thronged the venue, waving saffron flags and raising 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans as Adhikari, one of the principal architects of the BJP's rise in Bengal, took oath amid elaborate security arrangements.
The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member assembly in the recently concluded elections, ending the Trinamool Congress's 15-year rule and scripting its most significant breakthrough in eastern India.
The oath-taking ceremony was attended by senior BJP leaders, MPs, industrialists and film personalities including Mithun Chakraborty, with the saffron camp projecting the event as the beginning of a "Sonar Bangla" under a "double-engine" government.
Adhikari, who defeated TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur Assembly seat and retained his Nandigram constituency as well, was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party on Friday in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
Jhalmuri turns taste of victory
The jhalmuri, a quintessential Bengali street snack that became an unlikely symbol in the bitter TMC-BJP fight for over a month, found pride of place at the swearing-in.
The state BJP set up 20 jhalmuri stalls across the sprawling venue in central Kolkata, while several independent vendors were also seen doing brisk business along the periphery.
Scores of people attending the ceremony made a beeline for the stalls to savour the snack made of puffed rice, green chillies and an assortment of spices.
"I am loving jhalmuri more today because of our heady victory in the election," said Manjari Basu, who came from Tollygunge, in Kolkata's southern quarters, to witness the swearing-in ceremony.
Manish Yadav from Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas, holding a paper packet of jhalmuri in hand, said the snack tasted sweet instead of spicy because of the BJP's momentous victory.
The humble snack hogged national limelight at the height of hustings during the recently concluded Assembly polls as Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled stop during his campaign in Jhargram on April 19 to savour jhalmuri from a nondescript roadside stall.
Since then, jhalmuri became part of the political crossfire with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee alleging that Modi's pit-stop at the shop was "all drama" and the prime minister retorting that the rival party was feeling the heat of chillies after he had the snack.
While Modi had remarked that the BJP would hold victory celebrations on May 4 and distribute sweets as well as jhalmuri among people, Mamata Banerjee had said that she would send the prime minister bhelpuri, which is available in Delhi.
