Rahul Sinha is on his way out and Dilip Ghosh is all set to become the new Bengal BJP president. RSS close Dilip Ghosh was summoned by top BJP leadership in Delhi along with Mr Sinha and it was learnt that he is all set to replace the latter, whose second term as state BJP president ended in September. Sources said, Mr Sinha will be made a central observer. If everything goes as planned, the party might announce the name of the new state president in a day or two.
There was speculation in the party that Mr Sinha will get an extension and continue till 2016 Assembly election. BJP national secretary and co-observer for Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh had also hinted that Mr Sinha would remain state unit president till next year’s Assembly polls. However, the Central party leadership finally took note of the growing revolt by a section of state party workers who on several occasions aired their grievances against Mr Sinha. The disgruntled state BJP leaders had questioned Mr Sinha’s leadership abilities after the party’s poor performance in Bengal civic polls and labelled allegations such as misappropriation of funds and lack of credibility to run the party against him.
Other leaders also accused state BJP leadership of “going slow” against the Mamata Banerjee government and failing to control the infighting. On Tuesday, dissident state BJP leaders threatened to launch an agitation and observe a hungerstrike in front of BJP state headquarters if Mr Sinha was not removed as state party president.
Sources said, state RSS leadership prodded national leader and co-observer for Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya to replace Mr Sinha otherwise it would not lend its support to the party in upcoming elections. Facing the heat from both ends, the Central leadership was compelled to take a decision and removed Mr Sinha as Bengal BJP president. Earlier, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra was the frontrunner to be the next state unit president. However, the central leadership chose RSS close Dilip Ghosh as the new Bengal BJP president.
