BJP announces new Bengal state committee, balances old guard and new faces before polls

Kolkata, Jan 7 (PTI) With just three months to go for the assembly polls, the West Bengal BJP on Wednesday constituted its long-delayed state committee, a carefully weighted organisational reset that seeks to balance old loyalties, contain internal rivalries and ring-fence key electoral players.

The 35-member committee was announced nearly six months after Samik Bhattacharya took charge as state president in July last year.

Though the leadership had initially planned to roll out the team before the Durga Puja, persistent friction between the party's old guard and post-2019 inductees repeatedly pushed the exercise back, underscoring the BJP's unresolved internal churn in West Bengal.

The final list reflects a deliberate attempt at course correction without rupture. Senior organisational hands dominate the committee, but a set of calibrated inclusions and exclusions signal the leadership's effort to stabilise factional fault lines ahead of the 2026 contest rather than provoke fresh ones.

Politically, the omissions have been as telling as the appointments. Former state president Dilip Ghosh has been kept out of the state committee, despite recent public messaging from the central leadership urging veterans to remain politically active.

During a recent visit, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reportedly asked Ghosh to step up his engagement, fuelling expectations of a formal organisational role.

Party insiders argue that the exclusions point to a conscious restructuring, designed to prevent overlap between organisational authority and electoral leadership.

Several senior figures seen as potential assembly poll candidates were deliberately kept outside the committee to allow operational clarity during the campaign, sources said.

Among the key beneficiaries of the reshuffle is Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan, who has been elevated as a general secretary, alongside reinstated leaders like Locket Chatterjee and Lok Sabha member Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato, signalling renewed emphasis on district-level mobilisation in southern and western Bengal regions where the BJP has been keen to arrest erosion since 2021.

Mahato and Chatterjee's retention as general secretaries, indicating continuity in organisational verticals, is deemed critical for the campaign.

In the reworked hierarchy, former general secretaries Agnimitra Paul and Jagannath Chatterjee and MLA Deepak Barman have been elevated as vice-presidents.

The move is being read within the party as a redistribution of authority, retaining stature while narrowing operational control, rather than outright sidelining.

The BJP also named new heads for its frontal organisations, a crucial mobilisation layer ahead of the polls.

Indranil Khan will continue to lead the youth wing, Falguni Patra the Mahila Morcha, Rajiv Bhowmik the Kisan Morcha, Shubhendu Sarkar the OBC Morcha and Sujit Biswas the SC Morcha. MP Khagen Murmu has been appointed head of the ST Morcha.

Significantly, veteran leader Ali Hossain has been brought back as Minority Morcha president, replacing Charles Nandi, a move seen as an attempt to re-anchor the party among older minority-facing organisational networks rather than experiment close to polling.

The return of Tanuja Chakraborty as vice-president has also drawn attention. Once the state chief of the BJP's women's wing, she had remained organisationally sidelined for years before her re-induction under Bhattacharya, signalling a quiet rehabilitation of sections of the old cadre base.

Equally notable is the accommodation of turncoat TMC leader Tapas Ray as vice-president, reinforcing the BJP's continued dependence on leaders with Trinamool Congress backgrounds to expand its urban and semi-urban footprint, a strategy that has delivered mixed electoral returns in the past.

In all, the committee comprises 12 vice-presidents, five general secretaries and 12 secretaries, with women accounting for seven members, or roughly one-fifth of the total strength.

Separate announcements also named the heads of various frontal wings as the party looks to activate its social coalitions.

"For a party that surged to the centre of Bengal's political stage in 2021, but struggled thereafter to convert momentum into sustained organisational coherence, the new committee represents less a dramatic overhaul than a tactical recalibration," a political analyst said.

With the election clock ticking and the Election Commission expected to announce the poll schedule after the SIR process concludes in February, the BJP's latest organisational bet appears aimed at damping internal disquiet, sharpening booth-level focus and presenting a unite, if carefully curated, front against the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The 294-member West Bengal Assembly is due to go to polls in April-May. PTI PNT NN