President Droupadi Murmu on Monday appointed former Bengal BJP president Ashim Kumar Ghosh as the governor of Haryana, sending out two distinct messages.
First, it signalled that the BJP was giving priority to veteran leaders, who had once carried the party’s flag and helped the party win elections when it was politically insignificant in Bengal. This comes close on the heels of the elevation of another old guard, Samik Bhattacharya, as the state BJP president.
Second, Ghosh — a retired political science professor and recently inducted as a member of the BJP’s national council — represents the educated Bengali middle class, a section the BJP is keen to woo ahead of next year’s elections.
“The appointment is very significant ahead of next year’s Assembly polls. By selecting an old guard like Ashim Kumar Ghosh, the party is sending a clear message that it doesn’t forget those who once fought for it. This move could help us bring back old-timers who had been distancing themselves from the party for a long stretch,” said a senior BJP leader in Calcutta.
Ghosh joined the BJP in 1989 and, after serving in various organisational roles, became the state president in 1999, a position he held for three years. He was also appointed as the party’s Tripura observer from 2003 to 2005. In 1991, Ghosh unsuccessfully contested from the Cossipore Assembly constituency.
“It is a great responsibility to become the governor of Haryana. I will reach out to the Haryana cabinet, the chief minister, and also the Opposition parties there. Genuine grievances of the Opposition will be looked into. I will encourage the chief minister of Haryana to undertake initiatives for the further development of the state,” Ghosh told The Telegraph on Monday evening.
He also expressed pride in being a Bengali, from a land that gave birth to numerous polymaths and played a significant role in the country’s renaissance.
BJP sources said rewarding Ghosh with the gubernatorial post was symbolic, as he was instrumental in the victory of Bengal’s first BJP MP, Tapan Sikdar, in 1998. Ghosh, who was a professor of political science at Maharaja Srischandra College in Calcutta, had taken six months’ leave to stay in Krishnanagar and successfully steer the campaign of Satyabrata Mookherjee, who went on to win from Nadia’s Krishnanagar. Both Sikdar and Mookherjee later became ministers in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government.
The 1944-born newly appointed governor of Haryana said: “I will use the cultural ethos of Bengal in my conduct to connect with the people of Haryana and ensure their development.”
In recent years, Ghosh had been sent to several states for party campaigns. Though he was not a direct RSS swayamsevak, he had maintained a good rapport with the Sangh even before joining the BJP. He was known to be close to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Amid a surge of newcomers — many from the Trinamool Congress and the Left — after the BJP’s unprecedented win of 18 seats in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, many of the party’s old-timers, from top to grassroots levels, were sidelined. However, after experiencing setbacks in the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP appears to have realised the importance of reinstating those who stood with the party when it had little political presence in the state.
“There were many names of newcomers in contention for the state president’s post, but the BJP chose old guard Samik Bhattacharya — someone who carried the party’s flag when it was still insignificant in Bengal. Ghosh’s appointment as governor carries a similar message,” said a source.
Many BJP leaders believe that the appointments of both Ghosh and Bhattacharya are strategic moves to win over the educated Bengali middle class, which has traditionally kept a distance from the BJP. Bhattacharya, also a political science professor with a gentlemanly persona, is considered a representative of that class.
“Like Bhattacharya, Ghosh also hails from Howrah, a close-in urban pocket adjacent to Calcutta. We’ve already secured our electoral base among rural voters, mainly among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The party now needs just 4–5 per cent additional votes to remove the TMC from power in 2026. Even a small fraction of middle-class Bengali votes could change the game,” said a BJP leader.
The BJP’s “old guard first” strategy was further confirmed when former state president Dilip Ghosh was invited to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political rally in Durgapur on July 18. Dilip Ghosh had earlier faced distancing from the party after he was seen warmly greeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the Jagannath temple inauguration in Digha. His absence from Samik Bhattacharya’s assumption ceremony as state president had triggered speculation that he might join Trinamool on July 21, Martyrs’ Day.
However, the situation shifted after intervention from the party’s central leadership in Delhi. Dilip Ghosh was summoned to the capital and later met Bhattacharya to congratulate him on his new role.