The Bengal BJP will on Thursday celebrate the birth centenary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee to reignite the party’s old guard by invoking nostalgia for the first non-Congress Prime Minister to serve a full term.
BJP national president Jagat Prasad Nadda will preside over the programme at the National Library auditorium in the city, where around 2,000 party leaders who worked for the BJP during the Vajpayee era in Bengal are expected to attend.
A source in the BJP said that former district presidents, other organisational functionaries, and candidates who had contested from various constituencies in the past — particularly those who, during the Vajpayee regime, served as flag bearers of the party — would attend the event.
“We have found that many old-timers, who were stalwarts in their respective regions, had drifted away from the party. The mission of this event, which will be attended by senior leaders including Nadda ji and state president Samik Bhattacharya, is to re-engage them by assigning new responsibilities,” a BJP leader said.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (December 25, 1924 – August 16, 2018) remains a nostalgic figure for BJP old-timers, as it was during his era that the party first began building its base in Bengal. Though the party was not as strong as it is today, the foundation of its organisational structure was laid during that period.
After his death, the Narendra Modi government announced Vajpayee’s birth anniversary as Sushasan Divas or Good Governance Day. The occasion is usually marked by lectures and discussions that highlight the former Prime Minister’s contributions. Vajpayee was also a well-known poet.
A BJP source said an important aspect of engaging these old-timers is that many of them have firsthand experience of how the Trinamool Congress functions, as Mamata Banerjee was once a part of the Vajpayee government.
“Their contribution is therefore important,” the leader said.
Since Bhattacharya took charge as the BJP’s Bengal president ahead of the crucial 2026 Assembly elections, he has conveyed a clear message that the party needs everyone — old-timers, current performers and newcomers alike.
However, the party has decided not to include tainted Trinamool Congress leaders, instead focusing on bringing grassroots-level workers under the BJP’s umbrella.
Bhattacharya, who is also a BJP Rajya Sabha member, argued that the old-timers are still active, but the party now plans to utilise them more effectively in
organisational work.
“Those old-timers are assets of the party. Functionaries who served as secretaries or presidents, or who contested elections 20 years ago, will attend the programme. We plan to assign them new responsibilities during the electoral process,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.
After Bhattacharya took charge as the state president, former state president Rahul Sinha was brought back into the party’s day-to-day activities. Recently, the suspension of senior BJP leader Ritesh Tiwari was revoked.
The state party office has now become a destination for hundreds of old-timers who were rarely seen earlier, particularly after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the BJP made an unprecedented gain by winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
Many BJP insiders believe the party failed to ascend to power because it had prioritised newcomers more than the old timers.
A senior BJP leader said Bhattacharya believed he needed everyone to take on the mighty Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee in 2026.
“Samik da is acceptable to all. He considers everyone significant and believes everyone has a role to play. That is why he gives equal importance to strong new faces like Suvendu Adhikari and the party’s old guard simultaneously,” the leader said.
Another senior BJP leader, one of the organisers of the Vajpayee birth centenary celebrations, said the target is to bring around 2,000 old-timers who have been associated with the party since the late 1990s.
“We are not sure how many will turn up. It could be 1,000 or 1,500. For Thursday’s event, we have invited Vajpayee-era leaders from south Bengal districts, including Calcutta, where the party needs to win more seats to defeat the Trinamool Congress,” the leader said.
“A few from north Bengal may attend the event,” he added.
Shah trip
Union home minister Amit Shah is likely to visit Calcutta for two days on December 30 and 31 for a series of organisational meetings and to oversee the preparedness of the party’s state unit for the upcoming Assembly elections this year. Though Shah’s office is yet to officially confirm the trip, BJP leaders said that if there was no last-minute change, Shah will visit Bengal. A motorcycle rally has also been planned during Shah’s visit, a source said.