Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh’s absence from Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s public meeting in Kolkata has raised eyebrows and added fuel to existing speculations about his possibility of joining the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Amit Shah’s visit to West Bengal on Sunday was crucial for the BJP ahead of the upcoming West Bengal Elections which are due next year.

Notably, former Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh’s absence from the BJP’s organisational meeting with Shah fuelled rumours of a possible rift between him and the party. However, Dilip Ghosh has offered an explanation behind his absence, saying he was not invited to the event. Instead of marking his attendance at Amit Shah’s meeting, Dilip Ghosh chose to attend the concluding ceremony of the first-year of the RSS’ Sangh Shiksha Varg.

“I was not invited. I think many other former BJP presidents were also not invited. In such a situation, there is no rule against not being invited to the organisational meeting. Now only those people can tell why I am not being invited. The new people who have been given responsibility by the party were present at the meeting. They will make decisions, and we will follow them,” Ghosh told media.

The assembly elections in West Bengal are expected to be held before March 2026.

Dilip Ghosh absent from Modi’s Alipurduar visit on May 29

This was the second time in less than a week that the ex-MP and former state BJP chief was absent from a programme of a top BJP leader. The other instance was the public meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Alipurduar in northern West Bengal on May 29.

Dilip Ghosh was about 41 kms away at Howrah’s Tantiberia on Sunday afternoon when Amit Shah, the second most-powerful man in the Union government and the BJP was in Kolkata addressing party workers. Ghosh’s absence from Shah’s meeting raised eyebrows especially because this came barely three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded the poll bugle for next year’s Assembly polls in West Bengal from Alipurduar district in North Bengal.

Is distance increasing between Dilip Ghosh and BJP?

Dilip Ghosh’s distance from Bengal BJP and now even BJP Headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay marg has widened ever since the senior leader was removed from the post of the party’s Bengal unit president in 2021.

His marriage with party colleague Rinku Majumdar recently also did not go down well with either the Sangh, of whom he has been a follower since his student days or the party’s central leadership.

BJP didn’t approve of Dilip Ghosh’s meeting with Mamata Banerjee

Soon after the wedding, Ghosh paid a trip to the newly-inaugurated Jagannath temple at Digha where he met the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, leading to speculations about Ghosh distancing himself from the BJP and his possibilities of joining Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Dilip Ghosh’s Jagannath temple visit did not go down well with Bengal BJP leadership who made it clear they did not endorse Ghosh’s meeting with Mamata.
As per party insiders, Ghosh’s meeting with the CM could be a reason why he was sidelined from the crucial meetings, though he maintained that he had every right to visit a place of worship and that no one could question his integrity towards BJP.