• Source:JND
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West Bengal BJP Chief: Ahead of crucial West Bengal Assembly Election slated to be held next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resorted to a change of state leadership, aiming to uproot the 14-year-old Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool rule in the state. The saffron party, which saw unprecedented electoral success since the commencement of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in national politics, is yet to bloom its lotus in the cultural capital of India. The BJP's pick - Samik Bhattacharya - is a surprise for many, but this is the Modi-Shah's style. Experts see it as a calibrated move to steer the state unit through internal churn and retool it into a winning machine ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.

What Made Bhattacharya A Pick By BJP

Bhattacharya's rise to the state's top organisational post is being seen as a reward for decades of silent perseverance, ideological fidelity, and personal discipline, traits that have kept him at the core of the party machinery even when he wasn't in the limelight. A Rajya Sabha MP, he, 61, was elected unopposed as the new president of the Bengal unit.

Who Is Samik Bhattacharya?

A bachelor, Bhattacharya's political journey began in the mid-1970s when, as a schoolboy, he first attended RSS shakhas in Howrah's Mandirtala area. Immersed early in Sangh values, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which marked the beginning of his full-time political life as a foot soldier of the Sangh Parivar. He has been part of BJP since its marginal years in West Bengal, staying committed even when the party had little organisational presence or electoral relevance, long before its breakthrough post-2018.

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Gradually, he rose through the ranks: from ABVP to BJYM during Tapan Sikdar era in the 1990s, and over the next three decades held every major organisational post: state general secretary, vice-president, and chief spokesperson, except the presidency. It was during his days in BJYM that he forged a camaraderie with his contemporary Rahul Sinha, who would later head the state BJP in 2009.

His prominence grew under Tathagata Roy's presidency, when he was appointed state general secretary. Though he did not wield much organisational power under Dilip Ghosh, he was made chief spokesperson, a position that showcased his clarity, calmness, and command over facts. Despite serving under nine state presidents, Bhattacharya remained a go-to man within the organisation, trusted for ideological clarity and internal coordination, even as others leapfrogged into power or drifted away. Many in the party have long wondered why someone with his discipline and loyalty didn't rise earlier. Some attribute the delay to internal sabotage.

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He's that rare politician who knows who tried to block his path but never complains. He forgives and moves on. That sets him apart, said a close associate. His early electoral journey was a mixed bag. He lost the Shyampukur Assembly seat in 2006 and the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in 2014. But later that year, he sprang a surprise by winning the Basirhat South Assembly bypoll, becoming the BJP's first MLA from the area without riding on any alliance. The party, which had just one MLA in the Assembly between 1999 and 2001 from a bypoll, thanks to its then alliance with the TMC, saw Bhattacharya's solo win as a turning point. He also lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 2021 assembly polls.

Samik Bhattacharya Wows to End TMC's 'Misrule'

Bhattacharya described next elections as a fight to save the state's culture and pluralism from what he termed the "corrupt misrule" of the TMC.
"In Bengal, we started from a position where we were considered non-existent. But we never compromised on our ideology. Today, the people of this state have given us a position. The defeat of the TMC is imminent," Bhattacharya said in his first address to party workers after taking over.

The people of the state have made up their minds to end the misrule of this corrupt TMC government in the next Assembly polls, he asserted. Calling the 2026 Assembly elections a "fight for the existence of the culture, pluralism and heritage of Bengal", he alleged that these values are facing a threat under the TMC rule.
(With agencies inputs)