Bharatiya Janata Party – West Bengal

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.^[14]

Electoral performance

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.^[15]

The Bharatiya Janata Party contested the West Bengal assembly election for the first time in 1982.^[16] The primary objective of the party was to create a nucleus for a future third force in West Bengal politics.^[16] The party supported the call of the West Bengal government to hold the elections in March 1982.^[17] 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.^[18]

In the 1987 the party contested on 57 constituencies and slightly increased its votes to 134,867.^[19]

In 1989 Lok Sabha election, BJP contested on 19 seats and got 529618 (1.67%) votes in West Bengal.^[20]

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).^[21][16] This was the first time BJP fielded such a large number of candidates in West Bengal assembly elections.^[16] 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.^[22] The campaign sought to invoke Bengali memories of Partition.^[22] While support for BJP increased among Bengali communities, its main stronghold in the state remained non-Bengali populations in Calcutta (Marwaris and Gujaratis).^[22] Besides this, the party was able to mobilize the rural voters who were not benefitted from Left government's land reforms.^[15]

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^[23] and contested 42 Lok Sabha seats and got 2525864 (6.88%) votes across the state.^[24]

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.^[25] 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).^[26]

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).^[27] 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.^[28]

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.^[29]

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.^[30] The BJP however managed to get 2983950 (8.06%) votes.^[31]

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.^[32]

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.^[33]

2010s

In 2011 Legislative Assembly election the BJP allied with GJM.^[34]

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.^[35]

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.^[36]

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.^[37] The shift in the voting pattern was seen across the state.^[38]

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.^[39][40]

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.^[41][42]

In 2021 Assembly election the BJP in an alliance with AJSU contested 293 seats and got 28,968,281(38.15%) votes and created history by winning 77 assembly seats for the first time and becoming the second largest party and the official opposition. Ahead of the election, numerous politicians from other parties, including the governing Trinamool Congress, joined the BJP. Notably, Suvendu Adhikari and Mihir Goswami, both of whom switched parties before the elections, were appointed as leader of opposition and deputy leader of opposition in the legislative assembly respectively.

The BJP has started campaigning for the 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election with the slogan, "Paltano Darkar Chai BJP Sarkar" and is actively campaigning as of March 31st, 2026. They are targeting Hindu voters and potentially Trinamool Congress's women vote bank with the appointment of Retna Debnath in Panihiti constituency.

State Office Bearers (2026)

Morcha Presidents (2026)

List of State Presidents

The West Bengal BJP has one president, twelve vice-presidents and five general secretaries & twelve secretaries.^[44] As of July 2025, the President of the West Bengal state branch of the party is Samik Bhattacharya.

Dilip Ghosh is the 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 Leaders of Legislative Party

More information No, Portrait ...

No	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Term			Legislative office	Assembly	Chief Minister
1		Manoj Tigga	Madarihat	2016	2021	5 years	–	16th	Mamata Banerjee
2		Suvendu Adhikari	Nandigram	10 May 2021	Incumbent	4 years, 350 days	Leader of the Opposition	17th	Mamata Banerjee

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Lok Sabha

More information Year, Seats Won ...

Year	Seats Won	Seats +/-	Vote Share (%)	+/- (%)	Outcome
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
1951–52	2 / 31	New	5.94%	New	Others
1957	0 / 36	2	1.43%	4.51%	Others
1962	0 / 36		1.05%	0.38%	Others
1967	0 / 40		1.39%	0.34%	Others
1971	0 / 40		0.85%	0.54%	Others
Janata Party[a]
1977	15 / 42	New	21.46%	New	Government
1980	0 / 42	15	4.53%	16.93%	Opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party
1984	0 / 42	New	0.4%	New	Others
1989	0 / 42		1.67%	1.37%	Opposition
1991	0 / 42		11.66%	9.99%	Opposition
1996	0 / 42		6.88%	4.78%	Opposition
1998	1 / 42	1	10.2%	3.32%	Government
1999	2 / 42	1	11.13%	0.93%	Government
2004	0 / 42	2	8.06%	3.07%	Opposition
2009	1 / 42	1	6.14%	1.92%	Opposition
2014	2 / 42	1	16.84%	10.7%	Government
2019	18 / 42	16	40.64%	23.8%	Government
2024	12 / 42	6	39.1%	1.54%	Government

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Legislative Assembly

More information Year, Seats Won ...

Year	Seats Won	Seats +/-	Vote Share (%)	+/- (%)	Outcome
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
1952	9 / 187	New	5.58%	New	Others
1957	0 / 195	9	0.98%	4.6%	Others
1962	0 / 252		0.45%	0.53%	Others
1967	0 / 280		1.33%	0.88%	Others
1969	0 / 280		0.89%	0.44%	Others
1971	1 / 279	1	0.82%	0.07%	Others
1972	0 / 280	1	0.19%	0.63%	Others
Janata Party
1977	29 / 294	New	20.02%	New	Opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party
1982	0 / 294	New	0.58%	New	Others
1987	0 / 294		0.51%	0.07%	Others
1991	0 / 294		11.34%	10.83%	Others
1996	0 / 294		6.45%	4.89%	Others
2001	0 / 294		5.19%	1.26%	Others
2006	0 / 294		1.93%	3.26%	Others
2011	0 / 294		4.06%	2.13%	Others
2016	3 / 294	3	10.16%	6.1%	Others
2021	77 / 294	74	37.97%	27.81%	Opposition
2026	0 / 294

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Local elections

Municipal Corporation

More information Year, Municipal Corporation ...

Year	Municipal Corporation	Seats Won	Change in Seats	Status
Darjeeling district
2015	Siliguri Municipal Corporation	2 / 47	2	Opposition
2022		5 / 47	3	Opposition
Hooghly district
2015	Chandannagar Municipal Corporation	1 / 33		Opposition
2022		0 / 33	1	Others
Howrah district
2013	Howrah Municipal Corporation	2 / 50		Opposition
Kolkata district
2015	Kolkata Municipal Corporation	7 / 144		Opposition
2021		3 / 144	4	Opposition
North 24 Parganas district
2015	Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation	0 / 41		Others
2022		0 / 41		Others
Paschim Bardhaman district
2015	Asansol Municipal Corporation	8 / 106		Opposition
2022		7 / 106	1	Opposition
2017	Durgapur Municipal Corporation	0 / 43		Others

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Incumbent member(s) of Lok Sabha

Incumbent member(s) of Legislative Assembly

Defections, deaths and resignations since 2021

The BJP had won 77 seats in the 2021 elections. However, owing to several of its MLAs resigning, defecting to the Trinamool Congress and one death, the BJP's seats gradually reduced to 64 (as of February 2026).