A birthday meet and greet at the Leader of Opposition’s office within the West Bengal assembly has set off speculation of a possible patch-up among rivals in the state BJP.
Former West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh was at Suvendu Adhikari’s office in the assembly, and Mr Adhikari was seen offering sweets to Mr Ghosh on his birthday. Several MLAs seen to be close to Mr Adhikari were also present.
Within the party, Mr Adhikari and Mr Ghosh are said to be rivals. Bouquets were also presented to Mr Ghosh, under whose stewardship the BJP won 18 seats in the Lok Sabha in 2019. In 2024, that tally fell to 12.
After the 2021 assembly election defeat, Mr Ghosh was dropped as state president and was sidelined, according to political observers, and the party leadership was entrusted to Sukanta Majumdar, who has now become a Union Minister.
Mr Adhikari quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly election in West Bengal.
Mr Ghosh had been speaking out after the Lok Sabha elections and many believed his cryptic messages were targeted at Mr Adhikari.
A guarded criticism – seen as directed at Mr Adhikari – was from Mr Ghosh, who led the state party during the 2019 general election and achieved far better results.
Earlier in a post on Facebook, Mr Ghosh quoted former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, some of whose maxims are still considered gold standard by the party.
“Keep one thing in mind, even one old karyakarta (party worker) of the party should not be neglected. If necessary, let 10 new karyakartas get separated. Because the old workers are the guarantee of our victory. Trusting new karyakartas too quickly is not advisable,” the post read.
The BJP is likely to appoint a new state unit chief after the induction of Sukanta Majumdar in the Union Cabinet. Sources said the BJP has not reached a decision on Mr Majumdar’s replacement yet.
One of the speculated names is Mr Ghosh, who now seems to be on friendly terms with Mr Adhikari.
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