# Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal

Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal is the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian state of West Bengal. The party's headquarters is located in Kolkata, the capital of the state. Sukanta Majumdar is the president of BJP, West Bengal.
The party holds 2 seat in the Rajya Sabha and 12 seats in the Lok Sabha from the state. Furthermore, the party has 66 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

## 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

Vote share in consecutive assembly elections :
| 2021 | 2021 | 38.14% | 38.14% |
| 2016 | 2016 | 10.16% | 10.16% |
| 2011 | 2011 | 6.52% | 6.52% |
| 2006 | 2006 | 1.93% | 1.93% |
| 2001 | 2001 | 5.19% | 5.19% |
| 1996 | 1996 | 6.45% | 6.45% |
| 1991 | 1991 | 11.34% | 11.34% |
| 1987 | 1987 | 0.51% | 0.51% |
| 1982 | 1982 | 0.58% | 0.58% |
Vote share in consecutive Lok Sabha elections :
| 2024 | 2024 | 38.73% | 38.73% |
| 2019 | 2019 | 40.25% | 40.25% |
| 2014 | 2014 | 17.02% | 17.02% |
| 2009 | 2009 | 6.14% | 6.14% |
| 2004 | 2004 | 8.06% | 8.06% |
| 1999 | 1999 | 11.13% | 11.13% |
| 1998 | 1998 | 10.2% | 10.2% |
| 1996 | 1996 | 6.88% | 6.88% |
| 1991 | 1991 | 11.66% | 11.66% |
| 1989 | 1989 | 1.67% | 1.67% |
| 1984 | 1984 | 0.4% | 0.4% |

### 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). 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, its main stronghold in the state remained non-Bengali populations in Calcutta (Marwaris and Gujaratis). Besides this, the party was able to mobilize 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%) votes 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.

### 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.

## Electoral performance
### Local elections
#### Municipal Corporation elections

| Year | Municipal Corporation | Seats contested | Seats won | Change in seats | Percentage of votes | Vote swing | Government |
| Darjeeling district ||||||||
| 2015 | Siliguri Municipal Corporation | | 2 / 47 | 2 | | | Opposition |
| 2022 | Siliguri Municipal Corporation | 46 | 5 / 47 | 3 | 23.24% | | Opposition |
| Hooghly district ||||||||
| 2015 | Chandannagar Municipal Corporation | | 1 / 33 | | | | Opposition |
| 2022 | Chandannagar Municipal Corporation | 33 | 0 / 33 | 1 | 9.80% | | None |
| Howrah district ||||||||
| 2013 | Howrah Municipal Corporation | | 2 / 50 | | | | Opposition |
| Kolkata district ||||||||
| 2015 | Kolkata Municipal Corporation | | 7 / 144 | | 15.97% | | Opposition |
| 2021 | Kolkata Municipal Corporation | 142 | 3 / 144 | 4 | 9.21% | 6.76% | Opposition |
| North 24 Parganas district ||||||||
| 2015 | Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation | | | | | | |
| 2022 | Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation | 41 | 0 / 41 | | 8.20% | | None |
| Paschim Bardhaman district ||||||||
| 2015 | Asansol Municipal Corporation | | 8 / 106 | | | | Opposition |
| 2022 | Asansol Municipal Corporation | 102 | 7 / 106 | 1 | 6.6% | | Opposition |
| 2017 | Durgapur Municipal Corporation | | 0 / 43 | | | | None |

## Leadership

The West Bengal BJP has one president, twelve vice-presidents and five general secretaries & twelve secretaries. As of September 2021, the President of the West Bengal state branch of the party is Dr. Sukanta Majumder.
Dilip Ghosh is most successful president.During his leadership party gain 18 MP in 2019 lok sabha election. And in 2021 Vidhan sabha election party gain 77 MLA.

### List of opposition leaders

| No | Portrait | Name | Constituency | Term | Term | Term | Assembly | Chief Minister |
| 1 | | Suvendu Adhikari | Nandigram | 10 May 2021 | Incumbent | 3 years, 289 days | 17th | Mamata Banerjee |

### List of State Presidents

| No. | Name | Term in office |
| 1 | Haripada Bharati | 1980–1982 |
| 2 | Vishnu Kant Shastri | 1982–1986 |
| 3 | Sukumar Banerjee | 1986–1991 |
| 4 | Tapan Sikdar | 1991–1995 |
| (2) | Vishnu Kant Shastri | 1995–1997 |
| (4) | Tapan Sikdar | 1997–1999 |
| 5 | Asim Ghosh | 1999–2002 |
| 6 | Tathagata Roy | 2002–2006 |
| (3) | Sukumar Banerjee | 2006–2008 |
| 7 | Satyabrata Mookherjee | 2008–2009 |
| 8 | Rahul Sinha | 2009–2015 |
| 9 | Dilip Ghosh | 2015–2021 |
| 10 | Sukanta Majumdar | 2021–Incumbent |

### Elected members
#### Incumbent member(s) of Lok Sabha

| S.No. | Constituency | Constituency | Name | Win Margin in 2024 |
| S.No. | # | Name | Name | Win Margin in 2024 |
| 01. | 2 | Alipurduars | Manoj Tigga | 75,447 |
| 02. | 3 | Jalpaiguri | Jayanta Kumar Roy | 86,693 |
| 03. | 4 | Darjeeling | Raju Bista | 1,78,525 |
| 04. | 5 | Raiganj | Kartick Chandra Paul | 68,197 |
| 05. | 6 | Balurghat | Sukanta Majumdar | 10,386 |
| 06. | 7 | Maldaha Uttar | Khagen Murmu | 77,708 |
| 07. | 13 | Ranaghat | Jagannath Sarkar | 1,86,899 |
| 08. | 14 | Bangaon | Shantanu Thakur | 73,693 |
| 09. | 30 | Tamluk | Abhijit Gangopadhyay | 77,733 |
| 10. | 31 | Kanthi | Soumendu Adhikari | 47,764 |
| 11. | 35 | Purulia | Jyotirmay Singh Mahato | 17,079 |
| 12. | 37 | Bishnupur | Saumitra Khan | 5,567 |

#### Incumbent member(s) of Legislative Assembly

| S.No. | Constituency | Constituency | Name | Remarks | Win Margin in 2021 |
| S.No. | # | Name | Name | Remarks | Win Margin in 2021 |
| Cooch Behar District ||||||
| 01. | 2 | Mathabhanga | Sushil Barman | | 26,134 |
| 02. | 3 | Cooch Behar Uttar | Sukumar Roy | | 14,615 |
| 03. | 4 | Cooch Behar Dakshin | Nikhil Ranjan Dey | | 4,799 |
| 04. | 5 | Sitalkuchi | Baren Chandra Barman | | 17,815 |
| 05. | 8 | Natabari | Mihir Goswami | Deputy Leader of Opposition | 23,440 |
| 06. | 9 | Tufanganj | Malati Rava Roy | | 31,198 |
| Alipurduar District ||||||
| 07. | 10 | Kumargram | Manoj Kumar Oraon | | 11,001 |
| 08. | 11 | Kalchini | Bishal Lama | | 28,576 |
| 09. | 13 | Falakata | Dipak Barman | | 3,990 |
| Jalpaiguri District ||||||
| 10. | 16 | Maynaguri | Kaushik Roy | | 11,911 |
| 11. | 19 | Dabgram-Phulbari | Sikha Chatterjee | | 27,593 |
| 12. | 21 | Nagrakata | Puna Bhengra | | 14,402 |
| Darjeeling District ||||||
| 13. | 23 | Darjeeling | Neeraj Zimba | | 21,726 |
| 14. | 24 | Kurseong | Bishnu Prasad Sharma | | 15,515 |
| 15. | 25 | Matigara-Naxalbari | Anandamoy Barman | | 70,848 |
| 16. | 26 | Siliguri | Shankar Ghosh | Chief Whip | 35,586 |
| 17. | 27 | Phansidewa | Durga Murmu | | 27,711 |
| Uttar Dinajpur District ||||||
| 18. | 34 | Kaliaganj | Soumen Roy | | 21,820 |
| Dakshin Dinajpur District ||||||
| 19. | 39 | Balurghat | Ashok Lahiri | | 12,899 |
| 20. | 40 | Tapan | Budhrai Tudu | | 1,650 |
| 21. | 41 | Gangarampur | Satyendra Nath Ray | | 4,592 |
| Malda District ||||||
| 22. | 43 | Habibpur | Joyel Murmu | | 19,517 |
| 23. | 44 | Gazole | Chinmoy Deb Barman | | 1,798 |
| 24. | 50 | Maldaha | Gopal Chandra Saha | | 15,456 |
| 25. | 51 | English Bazar | Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury | | 20,099 |
| Murshidabad District ||||||
| 26. | 64 | Murshidabad | Gouri Shankar Ghosh | | 2,491 |
| 27. | 72 | Baharampur | Subrata Maitra | | 26,852 |
| Nadia District ||||||
| 28. | 87 | Ranaghat Uttar Paschim | Parthasarathi Chatterjee | | 23,128 |
| 29. | 88 | Krishnaganj | Ashis Kumar Biswas | | 21,277 |
| 30. | 89 | Ranaghat Uttar Purba | Ashim Biswas | | 31,782 |
| 31. | 91 | Chakdaha | Bankim Chandra Ghosh | | 11,680 |
| 32. | 92 | Kalyani | Ambika Roy | | 2,206 |
| 33. | 93 | Haringhata | Ashim Kumar Sarkar | | 15,200 |
| North 24 Parganas District ||||||
| 34. | 95 | Bangaon Uttar | Ashok Kirtania | | 10,488 |
| 35. | 96 | Bangaon Dakshin | Swapan Majumder | | 2,004 |
| 36. | 97 | Gaighata | Subrata Thakur | | 9,578 |
| 37. | 105 | Bhatpara | Pawan Kumar Singh | | 13,687 |
| Hooghly District ||||||
| 38. | 199 | Pursurah | Biman Ghosh | | 28,178 |
| 39. | 200 | Arambagh | Madhusudan Bag | | 7,172 |
| 40. | 201 | Goghat | Biswanath Karak | | 4,147 |
| 41. | 202 | Khanakul | Susanta Ghosh | | 12,884 |
| Purba Medinipur District ||||||
| 42. | 206 | Moyna | Ashok Dinda | | 1,260 |
| 43. | 209 | Haldia | Tapasi Mondal | | 15,008 |
| 44. | 210 | Nandigram | Suvendu Adhikari | Leader of Opposition | 1,956 |
| 45. | 213 | Kanthi Uttar | Sumita Sinha | | 9,330 |
| 46. | 214 | Bhagabanpur | Rabindranath Maity | | 27,549 |
| 47. | 215 | Khejuri | Santanu Pramanik | | 17,965 |
| 48. | 216 | Kanthi Dakshin | Arup Kumar Das | | 10,293 |
| Paschim Medinipur District ||||||
| 49. | 224 | Kharagpur Sadar | Hiran Chatterjee | | 3,771 |
| 50. | 231 | Ghatal | Sital Kapat | | 966 |
| Purulia District ||||||
| 51. | 239 | Balarampur | Baneswar Mahato | | 273 |
| 52. | 241 | Joypur | Narahari Mahato | | 12,102 |
| 53. | 242 | Purulia | Sudip Kumar Mukherjee | | 6,585 |
| 54. | 244 | Kashipur | Kamalakanta Hansda | | 7,240 |
| 55. | 245 | Para | Nadiar Chand Bouri | | 3,944 |
| 56. | 246 | Raghunathpur | Vivekananda Bauri | | 5,323 |
| Bankura District ||||||
| 57. | 247 | Saltora | Chandana Bauri | | 4,145 |
| 58. | 248 | Chhatna | Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay | | 7,164 |
| 59. | 252 | Bankura | Niladri Sekhar Dana | | 1,468 |
| 60. | 254 | Onda | Amarnath Shakha | | 11,551 |
| 61. | 257 | Indas | Nirmal Kumar Dhara | | 7,220 |
| 62. | 258 | Sonamukhi | Dibakar Gharami | | 5,323 |
| Paschim Bardhaman District ||||||
| 63. | 277 | Durgapur Paschim | Lakshman Chandra Ghorui | | 14,664 |
| 64. | 280 | Asansol Dakshin | Agnimitra Paul | | 4,487 |
| 65. | 282 | Kulti | Ajay Kumar Poddar | | 679 |
| Birbhum District ||||||
| 66. | 284 | Dubrajpur | Anup Kumar Saha | | 3,863 |