Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya has been unanimously elected as the new West Bengal BJP president on Thursday.
The senior BJP leader got elected to the post unopposed as no other candidate filed nomination for the post till the deadline on Wednesday.
Bhattacharya on Wednesday had submitted his nomination papers at the BJP office in Salt Lake in the afternoon, along with outgoing state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Suvendhu Adhikari.
A senior BJP leader had earlier said that the 61-year-old Rajya Sabha MP, being the sole candidate for the post, would be "declared elected unopposed".
The formal announcement was made during a felicitation ceremony at Kolkata's Science City, in the presence of union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who handed over the election certificate to Bhattacharya.
Outgoing president Sukanta Majumdar told news agency ANI on Bhattacharya's presidency, "This is a continuous relay race... Earlier, the fight used to occur under my leadership; now the fight will take place under the leadership of a new president... We will continue to fight to uproot Mamata Banerjee's government."
The Bharatiya Janata Party's process to elect the new state chief began on Wednesday, a day after the official poll schedule was made public.
{{/usCountry}}The Bharatiya Janata Party's process to elect the new state chief began on Wednesday, a day after the official poll schedule was made public.
{{/usCountry}}Party's returning officer and MLA, Deepak Barman, said in a statement, “The Sangathan Parv of the Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal, has reached its final stage. Today, in the concluding phase, 60 karyakartas submitted their nominations at the state headquarters to become members of the National Council. All nominations have been accepted. For the post of the party's state president, only one procedurally valid nomination was submitted, and it has also been accepted."
Bhattacharya is taking over the position at a crucial point for the party, with the West Bengal assembly elections due in less than a year's time.