Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya is poised to become the new president of the West Bengal BJP unit, unopposed. The 61-year-old veteran leader filed his nomination papers for the post on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at the BJP’s Salt Lake office in Kolkata, accompanied by outgoing state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
With no other candidates filing nominations by the 4 pm deadline, Bhattacharya’s election as the new state president is all but certain. He will succeed Balurghat MP and Union Minister of State for Education and Development of North East Region, Sukanta Majumdar.
Bhattacharya’s ascension to the post is seen as a strategic move by the central leadership, leveraging his strong oratory skills and wide acceptability among both old and new BJP workers. This development comes ahead of the crucial 2026 Assembly polls in West Bengal, where the BJP is expected to face stiff competition from the ruling Trinamool Congress.
According to sources, another BJP leader, Ambujaksha Mohanty, came to submit his nomination for the post of the state president. However, his nomination was not accepted. Mohanty had earlier contested the 2021 assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Patashpur.
Sources said that Mohanty’s nomination did not have the signatures of ten people and hence it was cancelled during scrutiny. According to the BJP’s organisational rules, the nomination of a presidential candidate must have the signatures of ten Pradesh Parishad members as proposers.
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