Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party named a chief minister of West Bengal state yesterday, cementing its thumping win in key elections in the bastion long held by its adversary.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed a landmark 207 out of 294 seats in the legislative assembly in Monday's results, marking its first electoral victory in the largely Bengali-speaking state of more than 100 mn.
The results should put Modi on a stronger footing while he battles a series of economic and foreign policy challenges, including high unemployment rates and a pending US trade deal, ahead of a general election in 2029.
The BJP named Suvendu Adhikari as chief minister of West Bengal, the party's leader and Indian interior minister Amit Shah said yesterday.
"It was decided unanimously," Shah told reporters after a meeting of BJP's elected members in the eastern state.
Adhikari will be sworn in today, the BJP's West Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya said.
Votes were counted under tight security in West Bengal – one of five states and territories across India that held elections in April and May and where results were also announced on Monday.
The BJP's campaign in West Bengal was marked by protests over the purge of millions of names from voter rolls, billed as removing ineligible voters but which critics said was skewed against marginalised and minority communities.
Violence that erupted after the election results killed at least five people, including Adhikari's close aide who was shot dead near his home in Kolkata as supporters of the rival parties clashed.
The BJP had waged an aggressive campaign to dislodge the powerful regional party of firebrand leader and three-time chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who held power in West Bengal since 2011.
Analysts say the ruling party's victory West Bengal is one of its most significant since Modi was elected prime minister in 2014, expanding its dominance beyond the Hindi-speaking heartland of north and central India.
The BJP also returned to power in the northeastern state of Assam for a third time in a row, and in the small coastal territory of Puducherry, where it was a part of the ruling coalition.
But in the southern state of Kerala, the opposition Congress party-led coalition triumphed and Indian film superstar C Joseph Vijay's two-year-old Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu.
At 108 seats, TVK fell short of a majority in the 234-member state legislature.
Local media reported yesterday that the former film star had secured the support of two communist parties and the opposition Congress party to cross the majority mark.
Popularly known as Vijay, the 51-year-old is now almost sure to lead the state.