Who is Makhanlal Sarkar? Meet the 98-year-old BJP veteran whose feet PM Modi touched at Bengal swearing-in ceremony

In a moment that momentarily stole the spotlight from the swearing-in ceremony itself, Prime Minister Narendra Modi bent down to touch the feet of 98-year-old BJP worker Makhanlal Sarkar at Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday, wrapped a shawl around the elderly man's shoulders, and held him in a long embrace as thousands of supporters erupted in cheers. The touching scene unfolded against the backdrop of one of Bengal's most consequential political days, the swearing-in of Suvendu Adhikari as the state's first BJP Chief Minister since Independence, a ceremony that had drawn the entire NDA leadership to Kolkata and filled the sprawling Brigade Parade Ground with a sea of saffron. Yet it was this quiet, unscripted moment between the country's most powerful elected leader and a nearly century-old party worker that many present will carry home as their lasting memory of the day.

The Moment That Stopped the Crowd

As the vast ground buzzed with the energy of what was already a historic occasion, the sight of the Prime Minister of India bowing before a frail nonagenarian cut through the noise and drew every eye to the stage. Modi did not let go quickly — he stayed close, speaking to Sarkar at length, holding the old man's hands, as if the ceremony around them could wait. For many watching, it was the most human moment of an otherwise grand political spectacle.

Few people in the crowd would have known the name. But Makhanlal Sarkar's life is woven into the early fabric of Indian nationalism in a way that few living people can claim.

A resident of Siliguri in North Bengal, Sarkar was a young man when he joined the movement led by Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee — the man many consider the ideological forefather of today's BJP. In 1952, he travelled to Kashmir as part of Mukherjee's campaign to hoist the Indian tricolour there, a movement that was then considered an act of defiance against the special restrictions in force in the state. He was arrested in Kashmir during that agitation, becoming one of countless quiet foot soldiers whose sacrifices were never written into mainstream history.

The Man Who Sang in Court and Refused to Bow

What makes Sarkar's story particularly striking is what happened after his arrest. Brought before a court and given the opportunity to apologise and walk free, he refused. Instead, according to West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya, Sarkar sang the same nationalist song that had led to his arrest — this time, before the judge. The court, apparently moved, ordered that he be given a first-class ticket home and a hundred rupees for the journey. He left without having apologised to anyone.

It is the kind of story that sounds too perfectly defiant to be true, but those who know Sarkar say it captures the man entirely.

A Lifetime Built Around One Party

When the BJP was formally established in 1980, Sarkar was already well into middle age — and he threw himself into the new organisation with the energy of someone decades younger. He was appointed organisational coordinator across West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, and Darjeeling districts, and within a single year helped enrol close to 10,000 members into the fledgling party.

From 1981 onwards, he served as district president for seven consecutive years — an achievement that was considered extraordinary even then, at a time when BJP norms generally discouraged leaders from holding the same post for more than two years. In a party that has since grown into the largest political organisation in the world by membership, Makhanlal Sarkar was there at the very beginning, laying the groundwork brick by brick.

A Living Link to the Founding Generation

At 98, Sarkar stands as one of the last living connections to the nationalist movement that predated the BJP itself — a man who marched with Syama Prasad Mukherjee, was arrested under a Congress government, and lived to see the party he spent his life building form its first ever government in West Bengal.

When Modi touched his feet on Saturday, it was not merely a gesture of personal respect. It was the Prime Minister of India acknowledging, in front of tens of thousands of people, that the victory being celebrated that morning had roots that went back decades — and that the men and women who planted those roots deserved to be remembered.

For Makhanlal Sarkar, who has spent 70 years working for a party that spent most of that time being dismissed as a fringe force in Bengal, Saturday may well have felt like the longest-awaited morning of his life.