After nine hectic months of heading the party organisation and the Assembly election campaign, state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya on Saturday returned to a passion he had missed during the period — theatre.

The twist in the tale was that the BJP state president watched a play in which Barrackpore Trinamool Congress MP Partha Bhowmik plays a major role.

Sources close to Bhattacharya said that after the sweeping BJP victory, he got busier, but on Saturday he rescheduled his tight calendar and watched A-Shakti, a play on poet Shakti Chattopadhyay, whom he personally knew and whose poems he loves.

Bhattacharya reached the Academy of Fine Arts before 3pm and devoted two-and-a-half hours to the play.

“I am watching a play after nine months. I have always loved theatre, and most people in the theatre circles know me for my love for it,” said a visibly happy Bhattacharya after the play.

A source said theatre aficionados in Calcutta knew Bhattacharya as a theatre lover even before he became a prominent BJP leader.

A-Shakti, produced by the Purba Paschim theatre group and directed by Debashis Ray, is based on the life, poetry and legacy of Shakti Chattopadhyay in Bengal, particularly Calcutta.

While Trinamool MP Bhowmik played the role of the city of Calcutta, thespian Debshankar Haldar portrayed the poet.

Possibly, this was the first face-to-face meeting between the BJP president and the Trinamool MP after the Assembly election in which Mamata Banerjee’s party was ousted after a 15-year regime.

The two politicians did not interact personally on Saturday except to exchange namaskars.

“It is not the first time that Samik Babu has come to watch my play. But this is being discussed now because he came to watch a play in which I have acted after this election,” said Bhowmik. “He came to the green room, where we exchanged namaskars, but there was no interaction beyond that."

Bhattacharya said he had "been familiar with Partha’s acting for many years before he entered politics". "I have watched his performances many times before. Politician Partha was new to me, not actor Partha,” said Bhattacharya.

During the Trinamool regime, many theatre groups were allegedly barred from staging plays critical of the state government. The issue became prominent after a theatre group was not allowed a hall to stage a play criticising the Mamata Banerjee government's handling of the RG Kar incident.

Bhattacharya claimed there would be no such curbs under the BJP regime. “Theatre will remain theatre. Plays can criticise the government. It is a matter of freedom of expression,” he said.