BJP Bengal announces new state committee ahead of 2026 polls

Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit on Wednesday announced its new state committee ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, bringing back its sole Muslim state office-bearer after four years and appointing a former Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister as one of its 12 state vice-presidents.

Ali Hossain, who was president of the state minority morcha (front) till 2021, was reinstated, while former TMC minister Tapas Roy, who joined the BJP days before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, was made a vice-president.

Similarly, Malda North Lok Sabha MP Khagen Murmu was reinstated as president of the scheduled tribe (ST) morcha.

“The new committee, which also comprises five general secretaries, 12 secretaries, five other office bearers and seven morcha presidents, represents a combination of mostly new faces and a few old-timers. Our state president Samik Bhattacharya promised to weed out dissent when he took over in July last year,” a state office-bearer said, requesting anonymity.

“There are no inductions that may trigger rebellion in the various factions in the state unit,” he added.

Three MLAs—Agnimitra Paul, Dipak Burman and Manoj Tigga—who were earlier general secretaries, were also made vice-presidents.

In a reshuffle that took place months after the 2021 assembly polls, Hossain was replaced by a member of the Christian community. “I have to work hard in the coming months. It is a mistake to think that no Muslim votes for the BJP. There are many who have strong nationalist feelings,” Hossain told HT.

According to the 2011 Census, Christians represent 0.72% of the state’s population and Muslims around 30%.

The presence of people with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background was also seen in the new committee. For instance, Debjit Sarkar, who was a general secretary in the past, was appointed the state unit’s chief spokesperson, a post Samik Bhattacharya—who also has an RSS background—held till July 2024.

The development took place days after former two-time state president Dilip Ghosh, who was an RSS pracharak (campaigner) before joining the Bengal BJP in 2015, was projected by the party as a frontline leader on January 1.

However, former state general secretary Sayantan Basu, a known Ghosh loyalist with an RSS background, did not find a place among the new office bearers. Nor did former vice-president Ritesh Tiwari, who was re-inducted into the party weeks ago after being suspended in 2021 for speaking publicly against the leadership. Basu, too, was dropped from the state committee in 2021.

Eight vice-presidents, including Tiwari, were dropped that year, while only Jay Prakash Majumdar joined the TMC.

Basu and Tiwari both said on Wednesday that they would like to contest the coming polls.

TMC leaders did not comment on the reshuffle, calling it the BJP’s internal matter.