Samik Bhhattacharya set to become Bengal BJP's new chief

Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) With the time for submission, scrutiny, and withdrawal of nominations being over at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya is all set to become the new West Bengal party chief as he is the only one to file the nomination.

Bhattacharya will replace his predecessor, Sukanta Majumdar, who is a Union Minister of State.

As his name has not been officially announced yet, he will be elected unopposed for the chair, and his name is likely to be announced on Thursday.

BJP’s central election observer for West Bengal, Ravi Shankar Prasad, will officially hand over the certificate of being elected as the state party president to Bhattacharya.

The BJP source said that Bhattacharyya met the party’s president, J.P. Nadda, at the latter’s residence in New Delhi on June 30. During the meeting, he was told that he was the only choice of the party’s central leadership as the new state party president in West Bengal.

The herculean task of Bhattacharya will be leading the party for the forthcoming and crucial West Bengal Assembly elections scheduled next year. Bhattacharya will have less than one year of time to prepare his party for the polls.

However, his greatest advantage is his smooth coordination with the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, which the political observers feel would be of great help in making organisational decisions without creating any internal feud.

The two-time BJP Lok Sabha member from Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency in South Dinajpur district and the current state president Sukanta Majumdar getting a berth in the new Union Ministry as a Minister of State has necessitated the selection of a new state president, since the party leadership follows the policy of “one person, one post”.

Majumdar became the state president of the BJP in West Bengal, replacing former party Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh, after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.

--IANS

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