KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh, who the party’s West Bengal unit had sidelined for months, was back in the spotlight on Thursday as he held a meeting with Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and declared that he was ready to shoulder any responsibility assigned to him.
Ghosh told reporters after meeting Bhattacharya that they discussed preparations for the assembly elections expected in March–April. “I don’t know what responsibility will be given to me, but I have said I am available 24×7,” he said.
Bhattacharya also insisted that Ghosh had been with them all along. “Who says Dilip Ghosh was away from the party? He is the flesh and blood of our organisation. He will play all over the field, although we do not see politics as a game,” Bhattacharya told reporters after he and the state unit’s general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakravorty held a meeting with Ghosh for an hour on Thursday afternoon.
The attempt to bury the hatchet from both sides comes after Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state. Ghosh, who was among the BJP leaders invited to Shah’s closed-door meeting with party leaders on Wednesday, said at a press conference that Shah told him to work for the elections.
“Sometimes people try to isolate some individuals, but at the end of the day, we are all party workers,” Ghosh told reporters after his meeting with Bhattacharya who had been trying for long to unite various factions owing allegiance to either old-timers or new leaders.
Ghosh also underlined that he still believed that the party erred during the 2024 general elections in deciding to field him from Durgapur Lok Sabha seat (in West Burdwan district). “But now our job is to campaign across the state,” he quickly added.
Ghosh, an RSS pracharak since 1984, joined the Bengal BJP in 2015 and was appointed unit president. During his tenure, the BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. But his second consecutive term was cut short and he was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar. In 2024, the BJP’s tally declined to 12.
Ghosh, then the sitting Lok Sabha member from the Midnapore seat, was sore that he was fielded from the Burdwan-Durgapur seat in 2024, which he lost.
On Thursday, Ghosh said he preferred to contest the state election from the 2026 Kharagpur assembly seat, which he had won previously. The seat is currently held by BJP’s Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay, an actor-turned-politician who had switched from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to the BJP.
“I held the seat earlier. If the party wants, then I can contest it,” said Ghosh, who has previously spoken out against the BJP inducting TMC leaders and promoting them at the cadre’s expense. Samik Bhattacharya did not comment on this.
In April 2025, Ghosh came under sharp attack from BJP leaders and workers after he accepted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s invitation to the consecration ceremony at the state-built Jagannath temple in Digha. At the time, BJP workers had shouted slogans at Ghosh and assaulted some of his supporters when he and his wife were returning to Kolkata from Digha.
Asked about that incident on Thursday, Samik Bhattacharya said, “It is a closed chapter.”
Ghosh clarified that he visited the temple only to offer prayers to Lord Jagannath. “But if the leadership says it is a closed chapter, I will not comment.”
Bengal’s ruling TMC took a jibe at BJP, saying Suvendu Adhikari, who left the TMC and joined the BJP in 2020, was effectively running the state BJP.
