Resentment within Bengal BJP over ‘outsider’ leadership
The Statesman | 3 December 2025
From this month, the Bengal BJP’s organisational functioning is set to come under the tight supervision of a fresh team of non-Bengali leaders deputed by the party’s central leadership — a move that has revived old resentments within the state unit about “outsider control” and reopened wounds from the BJP’s 2021 Assembly poll debacle.
The argument within the Bengal unit was blunt: that the party’s central strategists lacked an understanding of Bengal’s political culture, and that critical decisions taken from Delhi had undermined local leadership. Even former Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy had publicly attacked Vijayvargiya, accusing him of prioritising personal networks over the party’s long-term interests.
Today, four years later, and ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, signs of a repeat confrontation are visible. According to sources, several RSS-leaning organisers and district-level leaders are privately expressing unease over the decision to once again place key organisational responsibilities in the hands of leaders from outside the state.
“The entire steering wheel has been handed over to outsiders,” a senior state BJP functionary remarked, requesting anonymity. At the centre of this new structure is KK Upadhyay, a Rajasthan-born organiser, who later worked extensively in Uttar Pradesh. Although he holds no formal post in the Bengal unit, Upadhyay is reportedly shaping every major aspect of the party’s poll preparedness — from the travel schedules of central observers and Union ministers to the internal coordination frameworks between mandal, district and state committees. “Many decisions are being taken without even informing the state leadership,” a BJP leader claimed.
Alongside Upadhyay, three other non-Bengali leaders — Sunil Bansal, Amit Malviya and Mangal Pandey — are in charge of organisational and communication responsibilities. The newly-constituted election committee is headed by Union minister Bhupender Yadav and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb, both of whom will play frontline roles in Bengal’s booth-level mobilisation. Teams of leaders from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka are also scheduled to arrive in the state to take charge of zonal responsibilities down to the mandal level. This has led to renewed scepticism within the Bengal BJP about whether non-Bengali strategists can genuinely grasp the “political and emotional nuances” of the state.
“We are being reduced to fighting like tenants in our own home, while outsiders wield the whip,” an elderly BJP leader said. However, central leaders argue that the persistent factionalism and group rivalries within the state unit leave them with little alternative. “Only external supervisors can keep the organisation focused,” a party source in Delhi maintained.