Samik Bhattacharya, a 61-year-old Rajya Sabha member and chief spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s West Bengal unit, emerged as the sole contender for the post of state president on Wednesday as nobody else filed nominations during the organisational election process paving way for the veteran leader, senior party functionaries said.
Bhattacharya will replace 45-year-old Sukanta Majumdar, the Lok Sabha member from north Bengal’s Balurghat and Union minister of state for education and development of north east region.
Bhattacharya’s nomination was supported by Majumdar and leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari, who left the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP in December 2020.
Party leaders said the formal announcement would be made by the central leadership either on Wednesday night or on Thursday when a reception ceremony will also be held at Kolkata’s Science City auditorium in the presence of central leaders led by Ravishankar Prasad.
“The party president directed me to file my nomination. I will not deviate from the path I have followed for 42 years,” Bhattacharya said in the evening.
Bhattacharya, an old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker, tasted his first electoral success in 2014 when the BJP had no seat in the Bengal legislative assembly. He won the Basirhat South assembly seat for the saffron camp for the first time in a bypoll.
In the preceding 2011 state assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee brought the CPI(M)-Led Left Front’s 24-year-long regime to an end.
BJP leaders said Bhattacharya’s ascent marks the importance of RSS in Bengal in the run-up to the crucial 2026 assembly polls.
“The central leadership chose Bhattacharya because of his strong oratory skills and wide acceptability among both old and new BJP workers. With Bhattacharya as president, the rivalry between various groups and some state leaders is likely to end,” a senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.
Former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh – who was succeeded by Sukanta Majumar – was a RSS pracharak (campaigner) since 1984 before joining Bengal BJP in 2015. Majumdar, too, was a RSS pracharak.
Under Ghosh’s leadership, BJP set a record in Bengal by winning 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. This tally came down to 12 in 2024.
Ghosh, who had been appointed state president twice since 2014, was replaced in September 2021, a year before his second three-year term ended. Amid allegations that leaders who had come from the TMC were being given more importance, Ghosh was made a national vice-president but he lost that portfolio too in 2023.
In November 2021, Sukanta Majumdar announced the names of 11 new vice-presidents, five general secretaries and 12 secretaries alongside seven new morcha (front) presidents and heads of departments such as media, information technology and social media, triggering a furor. New spokespersons and television show panelists were also appointed.
Veterans such as Pratap Banerjee, Biswapriyo Roy Chowdhury, the then Union minister of state Subhas Sarkar, Raj Kamal Pathak, Debasish Mitra, Ritesh Tiwari, Raju Banerjee and Jay Prakash Majumdar were dropped from the panel of vice-presidents. Tiwari was suspended for speaking in public against the new leadership. A known hardliner, general secretary Sayantan Basu was dropped as well.
Only Majumdar, who started his political career in the Congress, joined TMC. The rest have stayed away from the limelight for the last four years.
“With Samik Bhattacharya as president, the sidelined old-timers may find a reason to return to the mainstream,” a veteran BJP leader said.
