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Amit Shah had last visited the state on April 14, setting the target of winning 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in next year’s general election. (PTI/File)
Amit Shah’s proposed visit in May also comes amid the controversy over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee denying she approached the Union Home Minister after the Trinamool Congress lost the national party status
Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah is likely to visit West Bengal around the first week of May, his second trip to the state within a month as the party sets the ball rolling for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On May 8, Shah is expected to be in Baharampur in Murshidabad, and on May 9, he is tipped to visit Rabindranath Tagore’s birth place in Jorasanko to mark the Nobel laureate’s birth anniversary.
Shah had last visited the state on April 14, setting the target of winning 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in next year’s general election. Sources say the party has identified 24 weak seats where it didn’t perform well in the 2019 elections. Sources added that Shah and BJP president JP Nadda will personally hold meetings in these constituencies.
Shah and Nadda will also interact with party workers across seats and hold discussions on grassroots issues.
“The fact that Shah and Nadda are coming is big for us. When they meet local leaders, it’s not a monologue. They listen to all our problems. Getting tips and encouragement from Shah means a lot to local workers,” a senior leader told News18.
Marking Tagore’s birth anniversary in his birth place will help the BJP counter the ruling Trinamool Congress’ claim that it is an “outsider party”.
The BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2019 elections and is gearing up to target 35 seats next year.
Shah’s proposed visit in May also comes amid the controversy over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee denying she approached the Union Home Minister after the Trinamool Congress lost the national party status.
“I will resign if it is proven that I called up Amit Shah over TMC’s national party status,” she said, rejecting Bengal’s leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s claim that she had made the call.
Adhikari on Tuesday claimed that Banerjee had dialled Shah after the Election Commission revoked TMC’s national party status to request him to repeal the decision.
“It was the norm to review the national party status of all parties after 10 years. That would mean the next review should have been in 2026 … But they did it in 2019… My party’s name will remain the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’. If the BJP has any problem, they can approach the Election Commission and we will approach the common people,” she told reporters at West Bengal’s state secretariat.
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