‘Bengal BJP to announce new prez on Thursday’

KOLKATA: BJP is all set to announce its new president for Bengal on Thursday with less than a year to go for Assembly elections. The party’s returning officer and MLA, Deepak Barman, issued a notification confirming the schedule.

Presently, Sukanta Majumder is the state president of BJP.

Nomination for the Bengal BJP president’s post will be accepted on Wednesday, followed by scrutiny and withdrawal on the same day. The final list of candidates will be released at 6 pm, according to the notification.

However, several party leaders maintained that the process is mostly a formality and a consensus candidate chosen by the Central leadership is likely to be named without a contest. A section within the party has pitched for a seasoned leader and one name gaining currency is that of BJP Rajya Sabha MP and senior leader Samik Bhattacharya.

His sudden and formal visit to BJP national president JP Nadda’s residence in Delhi on Monday added to the speculations. Although Bhattacharya maintained his meeting with Nadda was to brief him about the recently-concluded Parliamentary delegation visit post-Operation Sindoor, sources hinted that his name may be the sole nomination submitted in a sealed envelope on Tuesday. A state BJP leader confirmed that all saffron party members of the all-party Parliamentary delegations, which took part in the global outreach exercise for Operation Sindoor, on Monday met the party president. According to top BJP sources, the name of incumbent state president Sukanta Majumdar is once again under active consideration.