NAGPUR: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said the BJP's "spectacular" victory in West Bengal shows that the party's ideology has now gained recognition among people there, and the power change brought by them will pave the way for development of the eastern state.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways was talking to PTI Videos here before heading to Kolkata to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Suvendu Adhikari as West Bengal Chief Minister.
The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly in the recently-concluded elections, ending the Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s 15-year rule and scripting its most significant breakthrough in eastern India.
Adhikari, who defeated TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur assembly seat, on Saturday took oath as the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal, marking a watershed moment that redrew the state's political landscape after decades of resistance to saffron politics.
Before the TMC came to power in 2011, the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), ruled the state for 34 consecutive years.
Gadkari said, "BJP's spectacular victory in West Bengal for the first time is a tribute to Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee."
"Mookerjee established the Bharatiya Jana Sangh under very adverse conditions, and today our ideology has gained recognition in Bengal. This brings immense joy to all our workers...The change brought by the people of Bengal will undoubtedly prove very useful for the state's development in future," the Union minister added.