Ex Bengal BJP Chief Dilip Ghosh

Kolkata: Former West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who was defeated in the Lok Sabha election, said he is waiting to hear from the top leadership about his future role in the party.

The former Midnapore MP also asserted that he is a loyal BJP worker and will remain so.

Mr Ghosh won from the Midnapore constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was, however, asked this time to fight from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat where he lost to TMC candidate Kirti Azad.

“I had fought to the best of my ability. But the results were not in our favour. Let me see what the party thinks about my future role. I am ready to play the role assigned to me,” the BJP leader said.

“I have been waiting for a word from the higher leadership. There is no communication from them till now,” he told news channel TV9 Bangla.

Mr Ghosh, who was a pracharak of RSS, had been brought to the BJP in 2014 and made its Bengal unit president in 2015. He had steered the party to success in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP won 18 seats.

He was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar after 2021 assembly polls in which the TMC returned to power in the state for the third time in a row. 

Mr Majumdar won from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat in both 2019 and 2024 polls and made the union minister of state for education last month.

Mr Ghosh claimed that ordinary workers of the party want to know about his future plans.

“They are visiting me at home. I am waiting to see how the party wants to use me in the coming days. The 2026 assembly polls are still one and half years away,” he said.

Mr Ghosh said he is also reaching out to party workers who were affected by alleged post-poll violence in different parts of West Bengal.

To a question if he was a victim of politics within the state BJP, he said “I have never believed in the politics of having my own lobby. But I am a loyal BJP worker and will remain so. I will work under the guidance and leadership of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi,” he said.

Mr Ghosh had alleged after the defeat in the last Lok Sabha polls from Bardhaman-Durgapur that he was a victim of a conspiracy by a section of BJP state leadership who had misled the central leaders about his acceptance among voters in Midnapore seat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)