Kolkata

Suvendu Adhikari on Monday conducted his first public grievance hearing, or ‘janata darbar’, after taking charge as Chief Minister of West Bengal, listening to concerns and demands raised by citizens at a Bharatiya Janata Party office in the Salt Lake area of Kolkata.

Adhikari, who was sworn in as the state’s first BJP chief minister on May 9, has decided to make the ‘janata darbar’ a regular feature of his administration, according to party leaders.

A number of citizens, including students, attended the interaction and presented their issues directly before the chief minister during the session.

The practice of holding public grievance meetings has been associated with leaders such as Yogi Adityanath, who regularly conducts similar sessions in Uttar Pradesh, as well as former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who also organised such public outreach programmes during his tenure.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal BJP, through a post on X, highlighted what it described as key decisions and policy actions taken by the “double-engine” government during its first week in office, from May 9 to May 16.

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The party claimed that initiatives launched in the opening days of the new administration demonstrated a pace of governance that, according to it, had not been witnessed during the previous 15 years under the All India Trinamool Congress government.