Leader of Opposition, West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari and BJP West Bengal President Samik Bhattacharya at a press conference in Kolkata. | Photo credit: Debasish Bhaduri
West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Samik Bhattacharya on Thursday (December 25, 2025) told Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari at a public rally that he is integrated into the BJP and should not dwell on the past.
With the rift between the old guard and the new leadership irritating for the party, the state unit of the BJP organized a rally on Thursday inviting all senior party leaders to attend.
During the event. Mr. Adhikari took the stage and said that others of the old and new leaders of the section joined the BJP after being expelled from or disillusioned with other parties.
“I belong to that group. I left five ministries and the chairmanship of three cooperative banks to join the BJP.” said the Nandigram MLA.
Soon after Mr. Adhikari’s speech, the BJP state president said, “I will appeal to Suvenda Adhikari, you will not say this again in any future meeting. Because you have now integrated into the BJP.” The remark drew loud applause from the BJP leaders gathered at the venue.
Suvendu Adhikari, who was a prominent minister in the Trinamool Congress government, quit the Trinamool Congress in December 2020 to join the BJP, months before the state assembly polls. In the 2021 parliamentary polls, Mr Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the Nandigram Assembly seat. Mr. Adhikari’s stature in the party has since grown and he has now emerged as one of the party’s most important leaders.
Samik Bhattacharya, on the other hand, has decades of association with the party and was elected party president only a few months ago in July 2025. Ever since he was appointed BJP president, Mr. Bhattacharya has tried to bridge the gap between the old guards and the new members of the party and has tried to take everyone with him.
“People have to be taken from society. They cannot be ordered from Kumaruli (a potter’s colony famous for making clay idols)! So there is no old, no new. Everyone is just BJP.” he said.
Mr. Bhattacharya, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said the aim is to defeat the Trinamool Congress in next year’s assembly elections. “It is now or never,” he said, adding that the people of the state want to remove the Trinamool Congress from power.
Organized on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the meeting was attended by several former party presidents including Rahul Sinha and Union Minister and BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar.
Published – 25 Dec 2025 23:21 IST
