Bengal BJP faces first test: Who will be its new state chief

Significantly, speculation began when the West Bengal unit of the BJP released a list of 25 organisational district presidents — including 17 new faces — last Friday, when party insiders had said that the names of the state BJP president and the remaining 18 district presidents will be announced soon. With a year to go before next assembly polls, there have been hectic parleys – not only within the state BJP unit but also with the national leadership as leaders make a beeline for Delhi.

This comes at a time when there are reports of infighting and factionalism within the state BJP unit.

Among the major contenders is Majumdar, who was appointed to the position in 2021 – months after the assembly polls that year. According to a senior party leader who backs him, Majumdar has strong ties with the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

“In the case of our state president, liaising with the RSS is very important and in that aspect, Majumdar is very strong,” he said.

But there’s also a section backing Suvendu Adhikari, a former Trinamool Congress leader who joined the BJP in December 2020. In 2021, Adhikari, formerly a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a minister in her Cabinet, defeated her in the Nandigram Assembly seat by 1,956 votes.

Adhikari “has become our main face after the 2021 Assembly elections”, a senior leader said, adding that the state would then have “one centre of command”. “So, many leaders think he should be the state president,” he said.

But there is a section of leaders that backs leaders such as MLA Agnimitra Paul, former MP Locket Chatterjee, and former Union Minister Debasree Chaudhuri as the “woman faces of the party”, sources said.

A senior leader also hinted at a name that “could not be guessed” which is also in the fray, describing the candidate as a “young leader who joined the party just before the 2021 Assembly elections, but he is very close to the Sangh”.

Among other prominent names, according to sources, is that of Dilip Ghosh, a former MP and ex-national vice-president of BJP who was state president during the 2021 assembly polls, when the party won 77 seats from the three seats in the 2016 polls.

When asked, Ghosh had said Tuesday that he had “completed his innings”.

“I have been president twice”, he said, outside the Assembly, where he was flanked by Adhikari and other party MLAs. The new president “would be elected democratically”, he went on to say, before he added cryptically: “A player should be prepared to play on every pitch
and ground”.