Kolkata: After Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Thursday declared that former state president if the party Dilip Ghosh, who had been sidelined for months, was ready to shoulder any responsibility assigned to him, speculations are being floated that Ghosh may play a crucial role in the state committee and also in the forthcoming Assembly elections in 2026.
After his recent meeting with Union Home minister Amit Shah in the city, Ghosh has found a place in the party’s Salt Lake office. According to a BJP insider, Ghosh may be given an important post in the party’s state committee. Ghosh will be one of the key faces of the state BJP during its election campaign. After holding a meeting with current state president Bhattacharya, Ghosh on Thursday told the reporters: “I don’t know what responsibility will be given to me, but I have said I am available 24x7.”
Bhattacharya, however, claimed that Ghosh had been with the party 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 on Thursday.
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 Jagannath temple in Digha in April last year. 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.
Ghosh also 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 to the BJP.