The BJP on Friday appointed Suvendu Adhikari as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal. Adhikari, who was the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly, will be only the ninth CM in the history of the state, succeeding his former party leader Mamata Banerjee, with whom he had a bitter fallout before leaving the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to join the BJP in December 2020. The son of three-time MP Sisir Adhikari, who was the Union Minister of State for Rural Development in the UPA-2 government, Suvendu started his political journey with the Chhatra Parishad, the Congress’s students’ wing, at a time when Left dominance was at its peak. He displayed an early talent for organising and leadership and two years after Mamata formed the TMC in 1998, he, along with his father and brothers, joined the party. This immediately provided the TMC with the presence it required to challenge the CPI(M) party machinery in Purba Medinipur district, where the Adhikaris had been involved in politics for decades.…