KOLKATA: Without a pause, he can recite the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, Jibanananda Das and Shakti Chattopadhyay one after another. Closely associated with the RSS for more than five decades, Samik Bhattacharya, known for his calm demeanour and poetic sensibilities, is now at the helm of West Bengal BJP as its new state president.
The saffron party has handed him the baton to lead the organisation into the crucial Assembly elections that are just 9-10 months away.
Originally from Panchanantala in Howrah, Bhattacharya first came into contact with the RSS there. During his student days at Cotton College in Guwahati, he briefly worked with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
A good speaker in Bengali, English and Hindi, the 61-year-old Bhattacharya has consistently maintained his stance with dignity and without a trace of malice toward his opponents.
He has endured several political ups and downs. At one point, he had to face internal strife within the Youth Morcha. Yet he remained unwavering in his mission. When confronted with uncomfortable questions about his past in the party, Bhattacharya often responds by quoting his favourite Bengali poet, Premendra Mitra.
His loyalty to the BJP is resolute. He reportedly remains indifferent to internal gossip or dissent.
Bhattacharya was first elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in a by-election from the Basirhat South constituency a decade ago. Though his tenure as an MLA was brief, he earned praise for his eloquent speeches in the Assembly. However, back then, he was not particularly known as a strong organiser.
In 2016, he was allegedly offered a ministerial berth by the Trinamool Congress to switch sides, which he turned down with a smile.
Since Suvendu Adhikari’s defection from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP in late 2020, infighting has plagued the BJP’s state unit. The result has been a fractured organisation, split between old and new factions.
Despite the BJP winning 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections, its strength in the House has now dwindled to 65 after several MLAs crossed over to the Trinamool Congress. Furthermore, since 2021, the ruling party has won 10 out of 11 Assembly by-elections in the state. Bairon Biswas, elected on a Congress ticket from Sagardighi, also later joined the Trinamool Congress.
Following Dilip Ghosh’s tenure as state BJP president, Sukanta Majumdar took over the role. Ghosh, a former RSS pracharak, led the party from 2015 to 2021 and was credited with expanding the party's Lok Sabha presence in West Bengal from just two seats to 18 in the 2019 General Elections. However, despite the momentum, the BJP failed to convert that into success in the 2021 Assembly elections.
Majumdar, unlike his predecessor, allegedly struggled to command the respect and loyalty of party workers. Under his leadership, the BJP was unable to halt the Trinamool Congress’s advances, resulting in many workers defecting to the ruling party. Even the party's stronghold in North Bengal was significantly weakened.
At this pivotal moment, Bhattacharya—who also serves as a Rajya Sabha member—has taken charge. With the Assembly elections on the horizon, his primary task is to unify the party’s various factions and formulate a counter-strategy to challenge the Trinamool Congress’s bid to retain power in the state.
Having long admired Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a liberal political figure, Bhattacharya has indicated that he would steer away from what he calls “Extreme Hinduism”. Instead, he has called for a united opposition to take on the ruling party in the state.
He has also made a clarion appeal to Congress and CPI(M) workers: “Give up your party flags for some time and join the movement to dislodge the Trinamool Congress from the corridors of power.”
Whether Bhattacharya can lead the BJP to a victory in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections remains a million-dollar question. But one thing is clear—Bhattacharya, a man with no personal following within the BJP, enjoys popularity among grassroots workers and supporters. His ability to remain neutral in internal conflicts may well be his strongest asset.