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West Bengal has only had 9 CMs since Independence—and 5 phases of politics

The tragedy of the state is that it has lost its economic might with every successive regime. As of today, it contributes less than 6% of the national GDP.

India has had fifteen Prime Ministers, but West Bengal just welcomed their ninth Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari. This long cycle is why regime changes in West Bengal are more significant than in other states.

The neighbouring states of Bihar, Assam and Odisha have had 24, 15 and 15 incumbents at the helm. Maharashtra has had 20 CMs, while UP has had 21. Even the small state of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of UP in 2000, had had ten CMs in the last quarter century.

What then does fate have in store for Suvendu Adhikari, who was once a trusted lieutenant of former CM Mamta Banerjee. In fact, he was the face of the Nandigram agitation in 2006 against the proposed Rs 40,000 crore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for a chemical hub by Indonesia’s  Salim Group. This decision, as well as the exit of Tata from the Nano project at Singur marked  the end of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s efforts to transform the agrarian state into a modern industrial manufacturing hub. He was the last CPI(M) CM of the state, with a tenure running from 2000 to 2011.

However, it must be placed on record that even though the CPI(M)’s new-found love for industry was echoed by Bhattacharya, Somnath Chatterjee and Nirupam Sengupta (the industries minister of Bengal), many within his own party, including the Jyoti Basu-loyalist Asim Dasgupta never gave their full support. Dasgupta was miffed that he had not been chosen as CM.

This was the background which led to Mamata Banerjee’s massive victory in 2011. It was dubbed Poriborton—transformation. But after three continuous terms of TMC—from 2011-2026 one is  compelled to confront the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Banerjee followed the template of the Left Front to the tee—populism, street power, suppression of all dissent, and the ritualisation of procedure. She went a step further and personalised state power. The Left Front had to contend with recalcitrant partners like the Forward Bloc and RSP, which threw a spanner in every reform effort, and looked to extract their pound of flesh in the state apparatus.

However, the tragedy of the state—which........

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