The Bharatiya Janata Party – West Bengal (BJP - West Bengal) is the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian state of West Bengal. The party headquarter is in Kolkata and is currently led by state president Samik Bhattacharya.
The party holds 6 seats in the Rajya Sabha and 12 seats in the Lok Sabha from the state. Furthermore, the party has 208 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly by having a landslide victory in the 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election and is the current ruling party in the state.
History Predecessors and formation The origins of the BJP lies in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of the BJS, was born in Calcutta (Now Kolkata), while K. B. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS also studied in the city. In the 1960s, plenty of RSS offices opened across the state. They mostly worked with Marwari traders as well as migrants from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in Kolkata's Burrabazar. By late 1960s, local meetings were conducted in Bengali as well.
Electoral performance
1980s The BJP started its operation within the state from the grassroots level of governance, particularly the panchayat politics. The party also used various cultural icons in the state, including Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Swami Vivekananda in its election campaigns.
The Bharatiya Janata Party contested the West Bengal assembly election for the first time in 1982. The primary objective of the party was to create a nucleus for a future third force in West Bengal politics. The party supported the call of the West Bengal government to hold the elections in March 1982. The party contested on 52 assembly constituencies and got around 129,994 votes in the state.
In 1984 Lok Sabha election, BJP contested on 9 seats and got 101165 (0.4%) votes in West Bengal.
In the 1987 the party contested on 57 constituencies and slightly increased its votes to 134,867.
In 1989 Lok Sabha election, BJP contested on 19 seats and got 529618 (1.67%) votes in West Bengal.
1990s The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded 291 candidates across the state in 1991 Vidhan Sabha election, and managed to increase its share of votes from 0.51% in 1987 to 11.34% (3,513,121 votes).Election Commission of India. Statistical Report on General Election, 1991 to the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal This was the first time BJP fielded such a large number of candidates in West Bengal assembly elections. The party also fielded 42 candidates for the 1991 Lok Sabha election which took place simultaneously with the Vidhan Sabha election. The BJP got 3624974 (11.66%) votes in this election. Rather than focusing primarily on the Ayodhya issue, which was highlighted in the BJP campaigns across the country, the West Bengal BJP campaign concentrated on agitations against immigration from Bangladesh. The campaign sought to invoke Bengali memories of Partition. While support for BJP increased among Bengali communities due to crime & violence by CPIM workers such as 1990 Bantala rape case, Besides this, the party was able to mobilise the rural voters who were not benefitted from Left government's land reforms.
In 1996, both Assembly election and Lok Sabha election took place simultaneously, the party contested on 292 assembly constituencies and got 2,372,480 (6.45%) votesElection Commission of India. Statistical Report on General Election, 1996 to the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal and contested 42 Lok Sabha seats and got 2525864 (6.88%) votes across the state.
In 1998, the BJP contested on 14 seats and won 1 Lok Sabha seat for the first time in West Bengal from Dum Dum. It got 3724662 (10.2%) votes. Tapan Sikdar, who was serving as the West Bengal State President of BJP, won the Dum Dum constituency with 631,383 (50.7%) votes defeating nearest rival Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee of the CPI (M).
In 1999, the BJP in an alliance with All India Trinamool Congress contested 13 seats and won 2 Lok Sabha seats and got 3,928,424 votes (11.13). The two elected Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha were Satyabrata Mookherjee from Krishnanagar with 43.82% votes and Tapan Sikdar from Dum Dum with 51.59% votes.
2000s In 2001 Assembly election, BJP contested on 266 constituencies and got 1901351 (5.19%) votes throughout the state and 5.68% in seats contested.
In the 2004 Indian general election, the National Democratic Alliance was completely decimated by CPI (M) led Left Front and INC led United Progressive Alliance. The BJP didn't win a single seat and its ally All India Trinamool Congress was reduced to just 1 Lok Sabha seat. The BJP however managed to get 2983950 (8.06%) votes.
In the 2006 Assembly election, BJP entered into an alliance with the All India Trinamool Congress and contested on 29 constituencies. The BJP got 760236 (1.93%) votes throughout West Bengal and 19.89% on seats it contested.
In 2009 Indian general election, BJP candidate Jaswant Singh, with support from Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat getting a total of 4,97,649 (51.50%) votes. Across the state BJP got only 6.14% votes.
2010s In 2011 Legislative Assembly election the BJP allied with GJM.
In 2014 Indian general election the BJP won only 2 seats. BJP candidates for the first time, returned runner-up in 3 seats and got 17.2% vote share throughout the state. This performance was better than BJP's previous best of 11.66% in 1991 elections. However the All India Trinamool Congress dominated the election winning 34 seats.
In 2016 Assembly election the BJP in an alliance with GJM contested 291 seats and got 5,555,134 (10.16%) votes and created history by winning 3 assembly seats for the first time.
There was a major political shift from the left to the right in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in West Bengal. The Bharatiya Janata Party, won 18 Lok Sabha seats out of the 42 constituencies with 23,028,343 (40.25%) votes. On 24 May 2019, The Statesman reported that BJP had made CPI-M a marginalised party and setting a strong challenge to the ruling Trinamool Congress. The shift in the voting pattern was seen across the state.
After the election the Government of India passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) in the Parliament, allowing a quicker route to citizenship to non Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries. The party hoped to benefit from the votes of the Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh.Romita Datta, Why no one will douse the CAA fire in Bengal, India Today, 10 January 2020Kaushik Deka, Who is (not) a citizen?, India Today, 10 January 2020
Post 2020 The BJP's Bengali booklet released in January 2020 claimed that the National Register of Citizens will be implemented to identify any undocumented migrants including Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and non-Muslims by the Citizenship Amendment Act.Amended citizenship law will shield Hindus when NRC will be rolled out, says BJP's Bengali booklet, Scroll, 7 January 2020NRC next, says BJP's Bengali booklet on CAA, The Indian Express, 7 January 2020
In 2021 Assembly election the BJP in an alliance with AJSU contested 293 seats and got 28,968,281(38.15%) votes and created history by winning 77 assembly seats for the first time and becoming the second largest party and the official opposition. Ahead of the election, numerous politicians from other parties, including the governing Trinamool Congress, joined the BJP. Notably, Suvendu Adhikari and Mihir Goswami, both of whom switched parties before the elections, were appointed as leader of opposition and deputy leader of opposition in the legislative assembly respectively.
In 2026 election, 7 Judicial Officers held hostage in bengal for 9 hours due to which Supreme court was forced to deploy central forces as there was complete breakdown of law and order.
The BJP has started campaigning for the 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election with the slogan, "Paltano Darkar Chai BJP Sarkar". They are targeting Hindu voters and potentially Trinamool Congress's women vote bank with the appointment of Ratna Debnath in Panihati constituency.Finally they won the 2026 legislative election with a landslide victory, winning 208 out of 294 seats.
Electoral performance Lok Sabha YearSeats WonSeats +/-Vote Share (%)+/- (%)OutcomeBharatiya Jana Sangh 1951–52 New 5.94% New 1957 2 1.43% 4.51% 1962 1.05% 0.38% 1967 1.39% 0.34% 1971 0.85% 0.54% Janata Party 1977 New 21.46% New 1980 15 4.53% 16.93% Bharatiya Janata Party 1984 New 0.4% New 1989 1.67% 1.37% 1991 11.66% 9.99% 1996 6.88% 4.78% 1998 1 10.2% 3.32% 1999 1 11.13% 0.93% 2004 2 8.06% 3.07% 2009 1 6.14% 1.92% 2014 1 16.84% 10.7% 2019 16 40.64% 23.8% 2024 6 39.1% 1.54%
Legislative Assembly YearAssemblySeats contestedSeats won(+/-) in seats% of votesVote swingPopular voteOutcome19829th520.58%1,29,994198710th570.51% 0.071,34,867199111th29111.34% 10.8335,13,121199612th2926.45% 4.8923,72,480200113th2665.19% 1.2619,01,351200614th291.93% 3.267,60,236201115th2894.06% 2.1319,34,650201616th291 310.16% 6.1055,55,134202117th293 7437.97% 27.812,29,05,474202618th294 13145.92% 7.952,93,74,470
Local elections Municipal Corporation YearMunicipal CorporationSeats WonChange in SeatsStatusDarjeeling district2015Siliguri Municipal Corporation 22022 3Hooghly district2015Chandannagar Municipal Corporation2022 1Howrah district 2013Howrah Municipal CorporationKolkata district2015Kolkata Municipal Corporation2021 4North 24 Parganas district2015Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation2022Paschim Bardhaman district2015Asansol Municipal Corporation2022 12017Durgapur Municipal Corporation
Leadership and organisational structure The following is the current organisational structure of the Bharatiya Janata Party – West Bengal as of May 2026:
Legislative party leader No.PortraitNameConstituency Term of OfficeAssemblyElection1Badal BhattacharyaAshoknagar199920012 years1999 (by- elected)2 Samik Bhattacharya Basirhat Dakshin 201420162 years 15th2014 (by- elected)3 Dilip GhoshKharagpur Sadar 201620193 years16th20164 Manoj TiggaMadarihat (ST) 201920212 years5Suvendu AdhikariNandigram13 May 2021Incumbent 17th2021Bhabanipur18th2026
State Office Bearers (2026) Office Officeholder(s) State President Samik Bhattacharya General Secretary (Organisation) Amitava Chakravorty Joint General Secretary (Organisation) Satish Dhond General Secretaries Jyotirmay Singh Mahato Locket Chatterjee Saumitra Khan Bijan Goswami Shashi Agnihotri Vice-Presidents Raju Anindya Banerjee Debasree Chaudhuri Prabal Raha Sanjay Kumar Singh Raju Bista Amitava Roy Tanuja Chakraborty Phalguni Patra Rampada Das Vidyasagar Chakraborty Manoj Pandey Ananta Dev Adhikari State Secretaries Deepanjan Kumar Guha Mahadev Sarkar Sakharav Sarkar Sintu Senapati Mohon Sharma Biva Majumdar Sanjay Varma Sonali Murmu Ajit Das Anal Biswas Nilanjan Adhikari Sankar Chakraborty State Spokesperson Ritwick Paul Treasurer Kedarashish Bapat Social Media Convener Saptarshi Choudhury Media Convener Bimal Shankar Nanda
Morcha Presidents (2026) Morcha President Yuva Morcha Amit Samanta Mahila Morcha Anjana Basu SC Morcha Biswajit Biswas ST Morcha Khagen Murmu OBC Morcha Dhananjay Ghosh Kisan Morcha Rajib Bhowmick Minority Morcha Ali Hussain
List of State Presidents
No. Name Term in office 1 Haripada Bharati1980–19822Vishnu Kant Shastri 1982–19863Sukumar Banerjee1986–19914 Tapan Sikdar 1991–1995(2)Vishnu Kant Shastri 1995–1997(4)Tapan Sikdar 1997–19995Ashim Kumar Ghosh1999–20026Tathagata Roy 2002–2006(3)Sukumar Banerjee 2006–20087Satyabrata Mookherjee 2008–20098Rahul Sinha2009–20159Dilip Ghosh 2015–202110Sukanta Majumdar2021–202511Samik Bhattacharya2025–Incumbent
The West Bengal BJP has one president, twelve vice-presidents and five general secretaries & twelve secretaries. As of July 2025, the President of the West Bengal state branch of the party is Samik Bhattacharya.