Samik Bhattacharya elected unopposed as Bengal BJP chief

Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP, Samik Bhattacharya, was unanimously elected as the party's West Bengalpresident on Thursday, succeeding Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar.

The election of the new state president comes as the party looks to challenge the incumbent Trinamool Congress in the upcoming 2026 Assembly polls in the state. Bhattacharya is a former West Bengal Assembly MLA from the Basirhat constituency from 2014 to 2016 and was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP representing the state from April 2024.

The new state president has succeeded Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar, who was elected to his post four years ago, on September 20, 2021.

Earlier today, after celebrating the election, Majumdar said that this election is the start of a "continuous relay race," and expressed confidence in "uprooting" the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the next election.

"This is a continuous relay race... Earlier, the fight used to occur under my leadership; now the fight will take place under the leadership of a new president... We will continue to fight to uproot Mamata Banerjee's government," he said.

Multiple party leaders, including Sunil Bansal, MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, LoP Suvendu Adhikari, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar, Amit Malviya, and Mangal Pandey, attended the ceremony, which took place in Kolkata's Science City.

BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad was appointed as the Election In-charge to oversee the Bengal BJPpresident election, as he announced the name of the new West BengalBJP state president today.