As the Suvendu Adhikari government completes its first 100 days on August 17—the milestone the Chief Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah plan to mark with a joint exhibition in Siliguri showcasing new laws and decisions—West Bengal’s first-ever BJP administration finds itself with a genuine, if uneven, list of achievements, and an even longer list of tasks still ahead. The government’s most visible early moves have been symbolic. The blueand-white signage which became ubiquitous under Mamata Banerjee, are being repainted saffron; “Vande Mataram” has been made mandatory at school and madrasa assemblies; and the TMC’s “Khela Hobe Diwas” has given way to an “Ayushman Day” aligned with the Centre’s health scheme. A senior BJP functionary described the intent bluntly: “It is not just about changing colours; it is about changing the political grammar of Bengal.” Wary of being cast as a party that would gut Bengal’s welfare net, Adhikari used his first Cabinet meeting to promise that no ongoing scheme would be discontinued. The flagship result was Annapurna Bhandar, replacing Lakshmir Bhandar and doubling the monthly payout to women to Rs 3,000; the first tranche reached over 28 lakh women on June 3, and by July 1 coverage had grown to roughly 1.1-1.3 crore beneficiaries, with the state targeting close to two crore eventually. But the scheme has also become the government’s most visible stumbling block. Verification delays left lakhs of women without their August instalment, drawing sharp Opposition criticism. tributed the hold-up to due diligence and misinformation on social media: “There is no reason for confusion. Eligible beneficiaries will certainly receive the money,” he said, announcing payments would resume from August 17 for applicants with error-free documents filed by July 10.
Municipal Affairs Minister Agnimitra Paul has acknowledged gaps in the beneficiary list, urging affected women to lodge written complaints: “If any eligible woman has been left out, she should submit a written complaint.” The government has paired Annapurna with an aggressive push on Central schemes—54 lakh farmers receiving PM Kisan funds, 74 lakh toilets built, 40 lakh houses sanctioned under PM Awas Yojana, and Ayushman Bharat finally rolled out with 1.43 crore families identified for cards, alongside a Rs 39,000-crore Jal Jeevan Mission agreement and the rooftop-solar Surya Ghar scheme. Adhikari has called this the tangible face of “double-engine” governance, though he has also conceded the deeper structural problem it is meant to address: “There is a huge unemployment problem in West Bengal, but the state is rich in human resources, education, and a skilled workforce.” The government’s other major undertaking has been an attempt to root out the “cut money” and syndicate culture the BJP spent a decade campaigning against. Adhikari has launched four toll-free helplines for extortion, illegal tolls, syndicate activity and bootlegging, and the party has begun disciplining its own ranks—suspending or expelling dozens of workers and issuing show-cause notices to more than 300, after complaints of extortion surfaced within weeks of the government taking office. State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has been candid about the scale of the problem: “Some people are trying to extort money using our party’s name. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is taking strict administrative action. We are also taking action at the organisational level.” Minister Agnimitra Paul was blunter still in defending the effort rather than denying the problem: “The issue of extortion will continue to exist. We have not washed everyone clean in a detergent or a washing machine… They are human beings of flesh and blood.” The government has launched four toll-free helplines to receive complaints related to extortion, illegal tolls, syndicate activity and bootlegging complaints. It has also moved fast to discipline its party’s own ranks by suspending or expelling dozens of workers. It has also issued show-cause notices to more than 300 party leaders over extortion allegations. To root out corruption, the government has transferred senior IPS officers to the Anti-Corruption Branch for closer oversight. Keeping national security in mind, the BJP government handed over 100 km of land to the BSF for border fencing with Bangladesh, including work near the strategically important “Chicken’s Neck” corridor. On the economic front, the Chief Minister has been touring industrial launches almost weekly, promising Bengal will be “financially strong in the next one or two years.” He has announced a Rs 4,000-crore steel plant foundation in Purulia for August 17, alongside Shyam Steel’s Rs 15,000-crore Bankura expansion, and cited interest from the Adani Group, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and Flipkart. He has also flagged a new push, backed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to revive Bengal’s tea and textile belts: “One is the tea sector. We should do something for the tea garden workers. At least 25 tea gardens are closed. The other is textile… I have huge interest in these two sectors,” Adhikari said, quoting Sitharaman, who is expected to visit the state between August 24 and 28. A single-window clearance system for investments above Rs 100 crore is also being finalised.
WHAT REMAINS UNDONE
Despite the announcements, no marquee investment summit has yet materialised, and the state’s finances remain a drag: outstanding debt near Rs 8.15 lakh crore and debt-servicing obligations approaching Rs 98,000 crore this year leave little room for the capital spending industrial revival requires. The legal aftermath of the 2016 SSC recruitment scam, which cost over 25,000 school staff their jobs, remains unresolved, as does litigation tied to the SIR-linked electoral roll exclusions that preceded the BJP’s own victory. The Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education budget has been cut by 62%, from Rs 5,713.61 crore to Rs 2,175.43 crore, a decision the government frames as rationalisation and critics call retribution on the Muslim voters who never voted for the BJP. The Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, passed 176-41 in June, faces a Calcutta High Court challenge from the CPI(M), even as Adhikari has warned industry and citizens alike that “hooliganism won’t be tolerated.” Within the saffron ecosystem, the RSS has urged patience rather than declared victory. RSS leader Jishnu Basu, acknowledging that extortion had become institutionalised under the TMC, said simply: “It will be alright soon. You have to give it some time. It has just been there for three months.” For a government that swept to power promising both “paribartan” and prosperity, that may be the more honest assessment of where its first hundred days actually leave it—a record of announcements and early wins, set against a state whose problems took 15 years to accumulate and will not be solved in a hundred days, or perhaps even a thousand.
