Dilip Ghosh gets invite to attend PM rally in Durgapur
The Statesman | 15 July 2025
Prime minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a political rally in Durgapur on 18 July, with senior BJP leader and former West Bengal state president Dilip Ghosh among the invitee, marking a significant shift amid recent signs of discontent within the party’s state unit.
This is the first time in months that Mr Ghosh, a national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been formally invited to a high-profile event after being absent from Prime Minister Modi’s previous rally in Alipurduar and home minister Amit Shah’s meeting at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium. His exclusion from those events had sparked speculation of internal friction. Ghosh’s invitation comes days after BJP appointed Shamik Bhattacharya as its new West Bengal state president. Bhattacharya has publicly vowed to bridge the divide between the party’s old guard and newly inducted leaders, signalling a reset in leadership dynamics.
Sources close to Mr Ghosh confirmed that he is likely to attend the Durgapur rally. The development follows a controversial remark he made during a recent visit to Delhi, where he expressed dissatisfaction about not being allotted a seat at party functions, prompting widespread speculation about internal marginalisation.
The BJP insiders suggest that Bhattacharya is now carefully navigating internal equations to avoid alienating senior leaders. On Thursday, both Mr Bhattacharya and Mr Ghosh attended a parliamentary standing committee meeting on home affairs, though reports suggest they did not engage directly. Bhattacharya has since returned to West Bengal to oversee several upcoming organisational programmes in North Bengal, where Mr Ghosh is expected to play a key role.
The Durgapur rally is being viewed as a litmus test for BJP’s evolving internal cohesion ahead of crucial upcoming electoral battles in the state.