The selection of the five BJP leaders who took oath as Bengal ministers on Saturday showed a careful calibration to cater to the regions that gave the party electoral success in the past 10 years in the state.

Suvendu Adhikari, who was sworn in as chief minister, won two seats: Nandigram, which is in East Midnapore, and Kolkata’s Bhabanipur.

Adhikari defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee from her bastion, Bhabanipur, with a margin of 15,105 votes and won from Nandigram, his own bastion, with a margin of 9,665 votes.

Adhikari, the ninth chief minister of Bengal, will be the second leader from East Midnapore to reach the mantle. Before him, Ajoy Mukherjee from the same district became chief minister thrice, between 1967 and 1971, during a period marked by instability in the state.

Dilip Ghosh: Veteran warhorse

On Saturday, senior BJP leader and the party's former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh also took oath as a minister in the new cabinet.

Ghosh, who won as a BJP candidate in the 2016 Assembly polls and then won the Medinipur Lok Sabha seat in 2019, won from Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore district with a margin of 30,506 votes in this Assembly election.

Ghosh, under whose tenure the saffron party reared its head in the state, is known to be a vocal, aggressive leader, who took on the TMC during the period of 2016 to 2019.

Agnimitra Paul: Coal mine belt in focus

Agnimitra Paul, fashion designer turned BJP leader, also took oath on Saturday.

Paul, who won from Asansol Dakshin (South), represents the coal mine belt and won the seat with a margin of 40,839 votes. Asansol has yielded electoral dividends to the BJP since 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

The BJP won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 70,480 votes in 2014. In 2019, the party won the seat for the second time with a margin of 197,637 votes.

Paul, a prominent woman face of the party, also won the Asansol Dakshin seat in 2021 with a margin of 4,487 votes. This election she has increased her margin by nearly 66,000 votes.

Nisith Pramanik: TMC leader to BJP minister

Nisith Pramanik, a former Trinamool Congress youth leader from Cooch Behar, also took oath. He won from the Mathabhanga constituency in north Bengal with a margin of 57,090 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by BJP MLA Nisith Pramanik as he takes the oath as a West Bengal cabinet minister during the swearing-in ceremony after party forms government in the state for the first time, at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, West Bengal, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (PTI Photo)

Pramanik joined the BJP after the TMC suspended HIM in 2018. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he won the Cooch Behar seat and went on to become a Union minister of state for home and sports affairs.

In 2021, he contested the Dinhata Assembly seat and won by 57 votes. In 2022, he quit his Assembly seat in order to retain his Lok Sabha seat. The TMC won the Dinhata Assembly seat in the 2022 bypoll and then wrested the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat in 2024.

Nisith represents north Bengal and a district where the BJP won all nine seats up for grabs this election.

Ashok Kirtania: Focus on Scheduled Castes

Ashok Kirtania, MLA from Bangaon Uttar (North), also took oath. He won the seat with a margin of 40,670 votes this year, increasing his winning margin from 2021 when he won the seat with a margin of 10,488 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by BJP MLA Ashok Kirtania as he takes the oath as a West Bengal cabinet minister during the swearing-in ceremony after party forms government in the state for the first time, at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, West Bengal, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (PTI Photo)

Bangaon Uttar, a Scheduled Caste seat, has provided electoral profit to the BJP since 2019. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party received 53.3 per cent votes in the constituency; in the 2021 polls it received 47.6 per cent votes, and in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, it received 52.3 per cent votes.

Both Pramanik's and Kirtania's seats have a strong presence of Rajbangshis and Matuas, who were swayed to the BJP by the promise of the Citizenship Amendment Act and have now become trusted vote banks for the BJP.

Kshudiram Tudu: Junglemahal spotlight

Kshudiram Tudu, MLA from Ranibandh (a Scheduled Tribes reserved seat) in Bankura district, was also administered the oath as minister.

Tudu won his seat with a margin of 52,269 votes. In 2021, the seat had gone to the TMC which had won with a margin of 3,939 votes.

BJP MLA Kshudiram Tudu takes the oath as a West Bengal cabinet minister during the swearing-in ceremony as party forms government in the state for the first time, at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, West Bengal, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (PTI Photo)

The Ranibandh Assembly seat had a BJP lead only in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when Subhas Sarkar won the Bankura Lok Sabha seat. Prior to that and since then the TMC has had a lead or won the seat.

This seat falls in the Junglemahal region, an area marked by instability during the late 2000s due to Maoist insurgency. After the fall of the Left government, the TMC entrenched itself in the region with its dole politics and social schemes.

In the past few years, the RSS has worked among the tribal people – whom the RSS identifies as 'Vanavasi' – who form a significant majority in the Ranibandh block of Bankura.

The Sangh has penetrated among the Bhumij and Kurmis in the region through its educational and social initiatives such as evening reading sessions of the Gita and Ramayan.

The initiatives have now started reaping benefits.