Who will be next West Bengal BJP chief? As Sukanta Majumdar moves to Delhi, state unit grapples with the question

“There’s a lot of bad blood in the @BJP4Bengal after the polls. It was @narendramodi who created the enthusiasm for the BJP. It was the untiring efforts of @SuvenduWB that energised people on the ground. Without both of them complementing each other, the BJP in Bengal would have been worse off. Of course, there were other shortcomings,” Dasgupta wrote.

Majumdar, who was appointed MoS in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region on Monday, expressed his desire to leave the post. “I definitely won’t lose my focus on party affairs in state politics. I have played my part over the years. The party did well in north Bengal and in some Assembly segments in Kolkata. Once a replacement is appointed, I will leave my post as state BJP president,” he told reporters on Sunday after coming to know about his induction into the Union Council of Ministers.

The BJP appointed Majumdar, who eked out a narrow win in Balurghat by 10,386 votes, its state president in September 2021, replacing Dilip Ghosh, in an attempt to strengthen the organisation in the aftermath of its electoral debacle in the 2021 Assembly elections. Following the state election loss, several ruling party MLAs defected to the TMC. During Majumdar’s tenure, the party failed to achieve any major electoral success, losing Assembly bypolls as well as statewide municipal and panchayat polls. In the Lok Sabha elections, its tally fell from 18 to 12.

According to BJP insiders, leading the pack to become the next state BJP president is Suvendu Adhikari. But Dilip Ghosh who was Majumdar’s predecessor is also in the running, as are Purulia MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato and former MP Locket Chatterjee, who lost from Hooghly. However, a party insider said the central leadership could also bring in a new face in order to hit refresh and begin its efforts in the state anew.

Though Ghosh is in the running, his recent outburst may work against him. Ghosh was the sitting MP from Medinipur but was moved to Bardhaman-Durgapur though he did not wish to change seats. Ghosh lost to Kirti Azad of the TMC in the election by 1.37 lakh votes. The BJP lost Medinipur as well.

A section of BJP leaders now want Ghosh to take charge again as during his tenure the party won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, its best-ever performance in Bengal in the parliamentary elections. “He is a grassroots leader. He helped the party grow in Bengal and expanded the organisation. He was successful as a state BJP president and took the Mamata Banerjee government head-on. He is an old-timer, a dedicated soldier who will never betray the party,” said a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya told The Indian Express, “The name will be announced at the right time. There is a process the party follows for the appointment of a state unit president. The central leadership will definitely look into this, once the formation of the Union government is completed. It is premature to take any names as Majumdar’s successor right now.”