NEW DELHI: BJP chief J P Nadda will kick off his party’s rural outreach in the poll bound West Bengal by addressing the first of the planned 40,000 meetings on Saturday in the state ahead of the Assembly elections.
“The BJP chief will reach Jagdanandpur village at Katwa in East Bardhaman on Saturday where he will address Krishok Surokkha Gram Sabha which will mark the beginning of 40,000 such meetings to be held by the party across West Bengal before the Assembly elections,” said Anil Baluni, the BJP’s media head in a statement. He stated that Nadda will kick-start door to door rice collection Ek Mutthi Chawal Sangrah campaign from Jagdanandpur also.
The Ek Mutthi Chawal Sangrah campaign of the BJP is to reassert the party and its government’s commitment and conviction towards the growth, progress and prosperity of farmers, he added. Baluni also stated that the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections will reach out to the homes of all the 73 lakh villagers across the state. Nadda will also take lunch at a farmer’s house in the Jagdanandpur village. Nadda will also hold a core committee meeting of the party in Burdwan on Saturday.
Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Friday said that the saffron party, if voted to power in West Bengal, will ensure that each farmer of the state gets `18,000 in arrears under the PM Kisan scheme.
The assertion of Vijayvargiya, the BJP’s West Bengal in-charge, came days after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee indicated that she was agreeable to implement the central scheme in the state, under which farmers get Rs 6,000 a year in three equal instalments. The move of the Trinamool Congress supremo, made months before the assembly election, is being seen as an attempt to blunt the BJP’s accusation that her party is preventing farmers of the state from getting benefits of the scheme.
“Farmers of Bengal will get their due after the Mamata Banerjee government goes and the BJP government comes to power,” Vijayvargiya said, while addressing a party rally at Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district. The mafia controls coal and sand mining in the state and indulges in cattle smuggling, he alleged, asserting that those involved in such rackets will be driven out by the BJP. Describing the TMC as a virus, the BJP’s West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said that his party is its vaccine which will make the TMC leave the state.