One nudge from Amit Shah on Wednesday seems to have resuscitated Dilip Ghosh’s career in the BJP, albeit with very little time left for the Bengal polls.

By Thursday, Ghosh’s resurgence — following his meeting with the Union home minister on Wednesday — gave hope to many in the party that saw electoral heights in Bengal not seen before or after his tenure as state party chief.

But many wondered if Ghosh’s comeback would be smooth, given the acrimony between the Bengal BJP feuding factions largely responsible for his getting sidelined.

On Thursday though, the former state unit chief hit the ground running, conducting with his old swagger top-brass strategy meetings and news meets at the party’s Salt Lake party office.

“Dilip Ghosh was not inactive in the party, he was a part of it. He will work extensively for the forthcoming polls, but I can’t reveal the way the party will use him for organisational work,” said Bhattacharya, who had been trying hard since becoming the Bengal BJP chief to bring back the sulking Ghosh and all the faces of the party’s old guard back to the mainstream.

That’s easier said than done. Ghosh expressed his displeasure publicly at being shifted from the Medinipur Lok Sabha seat he won in 2019 to Bardhaman-Durgapur, where he lost in 2024 (sources say he believes he was made to lose). Ghosh has demanded his old Assembly seat of Kharagpur Sadar, where the BJP now has an MLA, Hiran Chatterjee. These are in addition to the headache of mitigating tensions due to rivalry between loyalists of Ghosh with those of Suvendu Adhikari, some of Sukanta Majumdar and a few of Bhattacharya. Adhikari, as the leader of the Opposition, and Majumdar, as Bengal BJP chief after Ghosh and before Bhattacharya, have their
own camps.

“Very interesting, probably tense times ahead,” said a state BJP insider.

Ghosh is likely to address a rally with Bhattacharya at Durgapur on January 13, publicly kickstarting his comeback.

“There have been several changes of late in the party... many new people have been given responsibilities.... National leaders are visiting, the local team is strategising. I will be in the team and do as I am told,” said Ghosh. “(Contesting an election) is the party’s decision. I will be there when the party needs me, doing what it needs of me.”

Ghosh had stayed away from all mainstream activities and events of the party for at least a year, his distance enhanced by his controversial meeting with his newlywed wife Rinku with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the sidelines of the Digha’s Jagannath Temple in May 2025.

Ghosh was absent from rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, prompting speculation on whether he could join the Trinamool Congress, suggestions he had swatted away.

“As Bengal BJP chief, Dilip da managed 18 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal in 2019, up from two in 2014. Without him, we slumped to 12 in 2024. Many talk about the crashing defeat of the 2021 Assembly polls, but the fact remains that Suvendu was already here from Trinamool, calling the shots in many things. Despite that, Dilip da took the BJP to 77 MLAs in 2021, up from three in 2016,” said an old loyalist of Ghosh.

“But it is possible that he was brought back a little too late. We don’t know if Suvendu or others will allow him leeway,” he said, adding that Bhattacharya plans to use Ghosh for the BJP’s south Bengal campaign extensively. “There is no doubt that he could make a great deal of difference even now if allowed. His popularity and acceptability in the party remains unmatched.”

Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said Shah must have figured out that those trying to corner Ghosh — hinting at Adhikari — weren’t as efficient as him. “Which is why he (Ghosh) was brought back at the eleventh hour. They need him. But nothing will save the BJP in Bengal. People have rejected them,” he said. “His visit to the Jagannath Temple paved the path for this comeback.”