Amid speculation over rift in the party, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday met newly appointed West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattachrya at the party office in Salt Lake and vowed unity ahead of 2026 Assembly polls.
Speaking to mediapersons, Mr. Ghosh said he will follow the party’s instruction like any other worker. “He [Samik Bhattacharya] is a senior leader. I have a lot of respect for him. All the old BJP workers are with him,” the former State BJP president said.
The meeting assumes significance as Mr. Ghosh was absent at several party events, including the public meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. It triggered speculations that Mr. Ghosh, the most “successful” BJP president in the State under whose leadership the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, might join the TMC.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ghosh said he had given a slogan ‘Unishe Half, Ekushey Saaf (Half in 2019 and clean in 2021)’. “Though we could win almost half of the seats in 2019, we could not defeat TMC in 2021. We hope under the leadership of Mr. Bhattacharya, we will defeat TMC in 2026,” he said.
No misunderstanding
Mr. Bhattacharya who had described Mr. Ghosh as the “heart and soul” of the BJP, specified that not a single BJP worker should be left out in the fight against the Trinamool Congress in 2026. “There are no leaders in our party. We all are followers of the symbol of the BJP. There can be misunderstanding for the time being but there they are not out of the party,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.
Published – July 09, 2025 01:01 am IST
