You have been integrated with BJP: Samik tells Suvendu not to dwell on the past

West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Samik Bhattacharya on Thursday (December 25, 2025) told Leader of Opposition in State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari at a public gathering that he has been integrated with the BJP and he should not dwell on the past.

Since the divide between the old guards and new leadership has been an irritant for the party, the State unit of BJP on Thursday organised a gathering inviting all senior leaders of the party to attend.

During the event. Mr. Adhikari took to the stage and said that other from the old and new leaders a section joined the BJP after being expelled from other parties or getting disillusioned with them.

“I belong to this group. I left five Ministries and the chairmanship of three cooperative banks to join the BJP.” the Nandigram MLA said.

Soon after Mr. Adhikari’s speech, the BJP State president said “I will appeal to Suvendu Adhikari, you will not say this again in any future meeting. Because, you have now become integrated with the BJP’. The remark drew wide applause from the BJP leaders gathered at the venue.

Suvendu Adhikari who was a prominent Minister in the Trinamool Congress government left the Trinamool Congress in December 2020 to join the BJP, months before the Assembly polls in the State. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Mr. Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram Assembly seat. The stature of Mr. Adhikari has grown in the party since then and now he has emerged as one of most important leaders of the party.

Samik Bhattacharya on the other hand has decades of association with the party and was elected as party president only a few months ago in July 2025. Ever since being appointed BJP president Mr. Bhattacharya has tried to bridge the divide between old guards and new entrants of the party and tried to take everyone along.

“People have to be taken from society. They cannot be ordered from Kumaruli (potters colony famous for making clay idols) ! So there is no old, no new. Everyone is just BJP.” he said.

Mr. Bhattacharya who is also a Rajya Sabha MP said that the objective is to defeat Trinamool Congress in the next year’s Assembly polls. “It is now or never,” he said, adding that the people of the State want to remove Trinamool Congress out of power.

The meeting which was organised on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee saw the presence of several former presidents of the party including Rahul Sinha and Union Minister and BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar.