Suvendu Adhikari emphasises development and governance priorities in West Bengal

PTI, June 9, 2026, Kolkata: Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said West Bengal was lagging behind others in implementing various Central schemes, asserting that politics can be done during the elections, but development work should get priority the rest of the time.

The BJP has accused both the Left Front regime, which governed the state for 34 years, and the TMC, which ruled for 15 years, of politicking instead of developing the state, leading it to decline in various parameters, while the rest of the country advanced.

Adhikari said the state was lagging in implementing various central projects, development of infrastructure and providing facilities to the people.

"Politics will be done during elections, but development work must be done the rest of the time," he told reporters after an administrative meeting here.

In a remark aimed at the previous TMC rule, the Chief Minister said the highly politicised atmosphere of West Bengal had seen "police stations turn into party offices, and panchayat offices become cut money collection centres".

Maintaining that "governance suffered a disaster" during the TMC rule, the Chief Minister said: "We want to bring West Bengal out of that situation, establish the rule of law, and not the law of the ruler."

An NHRC-appointed panel investigating post-poll violence in West Bengal after the 2021 Assembly election, which the TMC won, stated in its report that the law of the ruler prevailed in the state, not the rule of law.

Stating that during the previous TMC regime, Rs 5 crore used to be spent in each administrative meeting, Adhikari said basic minimum arrangements were made for the BJP government's administrative meeting, and that would entail less than Rs five lakh.

This was the fifth administrative meeting of the new BJP government in the state since it took charge on May 9.