Bengal BJP begins search for new State president

 On Friday, the State unit of the BJP released a list of 25 organisational district presidents. There are 17 new faces with several MLAs having been removed from the post of district president

Senior leaders of the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a meeting on Sunday (March 16, 2025) to start the process of selecting a new State BJP president.

State BJP in-charge Sanjay Bansal, along with West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and other BJP leaders discussed names that will be sent to the party’s central leadership.

The search for the new Bengal BJP president has been on since Mr. Majumdar, MP from Balurghat, was appointed Minister of State for Education. The BJP follows a ‘one person, one post’ policy, and since the Balurghat MP is a Minister in the Union Government, the party is looking for a replacement.

On Friday (March 14, 2025), the State unit of the party released a list of 25 new organisational district presidents. There are 17 new faces on the list with several MLAs having been removed from the post of district president. The BJP has 43 organisational districts in West Bengal, and the party is in the process of announcing the names of 18 new district presidents.

Preparing for polls

The new State BJP president will have to get the endorsement of almost half of the district presidents. The saffron party is deciding on a new BJP president at a crucial juncture while it is preparing for next year’s Assembly polls. The West Bengal BJP registered its best electoral performance in 2019, under the leadership of Dilip Ghosh, when it won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, which were held under the stewardship of Sukanta Majumdar, the BJP managed only 12 of the 42 seats.

In the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal, the BJP won 77 of the 294 Assembly seats, registering a vote share of 38.1%. The Trinamool Congress won 213 Assembly seats registering 47.9% of the votes.

Since 2021, Suvendu Adhikari has emerged as the most vocal voice in the West Bengal BJP, frequently confronting the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. Mr. Adhikari, who is the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, however has not been regular at organisational meetings of the West Bengal BJP and has often claimed that he is not part of the BJP organisation.

Recently, when Mr. Adhikari’s comments on Muslim MLAs evoked strong reactions in political circles, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the BJP leader was making the comments to secure the post of Bengal BJP president.

If the Bengal BJP looks at other names, it is likely to pick a person from the Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes. A section of the BJP leadership also feels that a woman is better suited for the post of Bengal BJP president to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit West Bengal in the last week of March, and the new State BJP president is likely to be named before that.

Published - March 16, 2025 10:11 pm IST