Who is Makhanlal Sarkar, felicitated by PM Modi before BJP’s Bengal swearing-in ceremony?

As the BJP forms its first ever government in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday felicitated and took the blessings of Makhanlal Sarkar, one of the most senior workers of the BJP in West Bengal.

Sarkar was among the few who were on stage at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata where Suvendu Adhikari is set to take oath as the first BJP Chief Minister of Bengal.

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Who is Makhanlal Sarkar?

In 1952, Makhanlal Sarkar was arrested in Kashmir while accompanying Syama Prasad Mukherjee during the movement to hoist the Indian tricolour there.

At the age of 98, Makhanlal Sarkar remains one of the early grassroots figures associated with the nationalist movement in post-Independence India.

According to BJP leader Amit Malviya, after the formation of the BJP in 1980, he became the organisational coordinator for the districts of West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, and Darjeeling. Within just one year, he helped enrol nearly 10,000 members.

From 1981 onward, he served continuously for seven years as district president, an exceptional achievement at a time when BJP leaders generally could not remain in the same organisational position for more than two years, Malviya noted.

BJP honours slain party workers

BJP has also erected a memorial at the Brigade Parade Ground, where the swearing-in ceremony is being held, to honour the party workers killed in political violence in the state.

Names of deceased BJP workers have been written on a temporary wall decorated with white and yellow flowers.