Dear Reader,

Watching the swearing-in of Suvendu Adhikari as the BJP’s first Chief Minister of West Bengal last week, I was struck by the contrast offered by the massive show of strength that was mounted at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds and the comparatively austere oath-taking that had marked Bihar’s first BJP Chief Minister, Samrat Chaudhary, a month earlier.

What stood out on the dais in Kolkata was the line-up of BJP Chief Ministers from the east and north-east—Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bihar’s Samrat Chaudhary, Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu, and Tripura’s Manik Saha. The common thread among them: none is a traditional, lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool saffron politician.

Over two decades of covering politics, I recall that BJP Chief Ministers were once assessed by their RSS roots and years in the party, while their caste came only thereafter. Is that conventional approach to leadership changing, as parties like the BJP increasingly elevate leaders from outside their core ranks, most often leaders they have poached from rival parties?

Adhikari became West Bengal’s BJP Chief Minister within six years of formally joining the party in December 2020, after 22 long years in the Trinamool and an earlier association with the Congress. His back-to-back defeats of Mamata Banerjee in Assembly contests—Nandigram in 2021 and Bhabanipur in 2026—his ability to expand the BJP’s vote and worker base, and his intimate knowledge of Trinamool’s organisational machinery appear to have worked in his favour. The BJP is also banking on Adhikari’s booth-level connections, built during his long innings with the Trinamool, to help it build a durable organisational base in a State where it has long struggled.

In Bihar, Samrat Chaudhary rose to the Chief Minister’s post within nine years of joining the BJP in 2017, after stints in the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Janata Dal (United), and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha. His emergence as a sharp critic of Nitish Kumar during the latter’s stint with the RJD, and his relative distance from Kumar even after the JD(U)’s return to the NDA in 2024, positioned him as the BJP’s own man in Bihar.

His father, Shakuni Chaudhary, was a prominent OBC leader who moved across several parties. For the BJP, Samrat appears to fill a void: an OBC face in a State defined by the Koiri-Kushwaha versus Yadav binary. His proximity to Amit Shah, his tenure as Deputy Chief Minister, and his control of the Home Ministry sealed his elevation.

Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma followed a similar trajectory. He joined the BJP in August 2015 and became Chief Minister six years later, in 2021, after playing a pivotal role in the party’s 2016 Assam victory. Sarma had been openly critical of the Gandhis. He played a pivotal role in the BJP’s 2016 Assam victory, and became Chief Minister five years later.

Before him, Sarbananda Sonowal had joined the BJP in 2011 after leaving the Asom Gana Parishad, and became Chief Minister in 2016—five years after joining the party. Two leaders with non-BJP roots helped the BJP form its first government in the north-east, in Assam, and then steadily capture the entire region.

Manipur’s N. Biren Singh, once a powerful Congress leader under Okram Ibobi Singh, quit the party in 2016 and became Chief Minister within a year as the BJP capitalised on anti-incumbency. Biren went on to serve as Chief Minister for nearly eight years, the second-longest tenure after Ibobi, mirroring Sarma’s trajectory: leaders overlooked by the Congress, embraced by a BJP hungry for regional footholds.

In Tripura, Manik Saha joined the BJP in 2016 after leaving the Congress and quickly became central to the party’s rise, culminating in its 2018 victory that ended four decades of CPI(M) rule. His rapid ascent—from State party president to Rajya Sabha member to Chief Minister—underscored the BJP’s willingness to fast-track lateral entrants. He was sworn in again in 2023 when the BJP returned to power.

Arunachal Pradesh offers multiple examples. Gegong Apang, the longest-serving Chief Minister of the State, merged his outfit with the BJP in 2003 and led its first government there. His successor, Pema Khandu, son of former Congress Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, switched parties at speed in 2016—Congress to regional outfit to BJP within six months.

Not all such lateral entries have succeeded. Several former Congress Chief Ministers—S.M. Krishna, Amarinder Singh, Digambar Kamat, N. Kiran Reddy, N.D. Tiwari, Jagdambika Pal, Vijay Bahuguna, Narayan Rane, and Babulal Marandi—failed to go far after joining the BJP, whether due to age, limited mass appeal, or political constraints. Marandi himself is an outlier, having moved from the BJP to a regional party and then returning via ghar wapsi [homecoming]. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who began in the Janata Dal before joining the BJP in 2008, took 13 years to reach the top job, becoming Chief Minister in 2021.

While imported leaders cases are more numerous in the BJP, partly owing to its decade-long dominance at the Centre, the Congress too has them.

Revanth Reddy, who became the Chief Minister of Telangana in 2023, was once associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and later the Telugu Desam Party, rose swiftly after joining the Congress in October 2017 and delivered a victory where veterans failed. Within four years, he was Telangana Congress president.

Similarly, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was expelled from the Janata Dal (Secular) in 2005 and joined the Congress in December 2006, going on to become the party’s most successful Chief Minister in the State’s history. He served as JD(S) State President from 1999 to 2004 and as Deputy Chief Minister twice—once in the Janata Dal government under J.H. Patel and once in the Congress-JD(S) coalition under Dharam Singh. He was considered a worthy successor to H.D. Deve Gowda. But, as with Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam, blood proved thicker: Deve Gowda made way for his son H.D. Kumaraswamy. Within seven years of joining the Congress, Siddaramaiah became Chief Minister, and again in 2023.

Lateral entries carry risks, as the Congress learnt in Chhattisgarh. Former IAS officer Ajit Jogi, appointed the State’s first Chief Minister in 2000, generated friction within the party and the Congress was voted out in 2003. It remained out of power for 15 years, returning only in 2018 after Jogi was firmly sidelined.

Both these major parties, however, continue to rely on defectors and imports to secure power. Since the BJP’s return to power at the Centre in 2024, the trend has only intensified—with “buy, borrow, steal” seeming to be firmly in play.

Another major Congress figure in the BJP is Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose defection in March 2020 brought down the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. The State goes to polls in 2028, and Scindia moving into State politics cannot be ruled out, more so because the incumbent Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has yet to become a BJP pivot in Madhya Pradesh.

Also, as is well-known, a lot of the imports into the BJP have corruption or other cases hanging over them, which an entry into the saffron party miraculously removes.

Organisational loyalty, therefore, now counts for less than nothing, when the threat of prosecution is at play. Or when the eternal draw of political power and pelf beckons, from whichever side of the divide.

Write and tell us how you see this evolving over time. And what impact it will have on the electoral democracy.

Until the next newsletter.

Anand Mishra, Political Editor, Frontline

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