Sukumar Banerjee elected state BJP president

Kolkata, Nov 18 (UNI) Senior RSS leader Sukumar Banerjee was today elected unopposed as the BJP president of the West Bengal unit.

Mr Banerjee (79), who had earlier taken over the reins of the state BJP for a few months temporarily, was declared elected today on the last day of filing of nominations for the post as there was no other candidate, who filed the nominations for the post of state party chief.

Mr Banerjee would, however, formally take over the charge from the outgoing state party president Tathagata Roy, who relinquished his post after a term of two years.

Mr Banerjee has been associated with the BJP for a long time. He was instrumental in revamping the party under the then leadership of Mr Tapan Sikdar. But later following differences of opinion with Mr Sikdar and his followers, Mr Banerjee distanced himself from the party activities.

Today's unanymous election of Mr Banerjee as the state party chief proved that his support base within the faction ridden BJP in West Bengal was not on the wane.

Later informally talking to newsmen after his election, Mr Banerjee hoped that BJP's electoral alliance with the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) could be revived once again forgetting the present hiccups.

He said, "I shall try to revive our good and cordial relations with the AITC by meeting senior trinamool leaders soon." He, however, expected that BJP would receive the due recognition and respect from the AITC members in fulfilling the conditions of alliance partner.

He also made it clear that before meeting the AITC leadership, including Ms Mamata Banerjee, he would seek an opinion from BJP all India president Rajnath Singh with whom he would be meeting next week after formally taking over the charge as the BJP state unit chief here tomorrow.

UNI ABA TJP/src1933