KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP’s national president JP Nadda are scheduled to visit Kolkata on their two-day Bengal visit starting from Monday to take stock of the party’s preparedness and assess the organisational landscape in the state ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The two top BJP leaders are scheduled to land in Kolkata late on Monday night and hold a series of indoor meetings.
The visit by Shah and Nadda is said to be significant in the backdrop of the BJP’s stellar performance in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan and the two leaders will hold several meetings with the party’s Bengal functionaries and others perceived to be close to the organisation. Shah and Nadda, however, will not attend any public events or rallies.
Sources in the BJP said poll strategy and selection of candidates would get top priority in the meetings with Shah and Nadda.
“Some of the sitting MLAs could be engaged in the Lok Sabha poll fray. It will not be surprising if a few sitting MPs are axed from the candidate list of 2024 LS polls,” said a senior BJP leader in Kolkata.
The leader also pointed out that fresh faces could be fielded in the upcoming general elections as the two top-level leaders would meet the saffron camp’s sympathisers as well.
The first meeting will be held on Tuesday afternoon at the National Library, where some people perceived to be close to the saffron camp, apart from BJP’s state functionaries, have also been invited. Before flying to Delhi, the two heavyweights also meet the leaders of the party’s state chapter in a separate meeting.
BJP’s state functionaries are hopeful that the visit by Shah and Nadda will definitely boost up the party’s foot soldiers.
“A section of our party’s grassroot level functionaries became inactive because of the violence unleashed by the ruling Trinamool Congress after the panchayat elections. They have become active again and mustered up their courage to involve themselves in the party’s affairs. In his previous Kolkata visit, Shah had set a target of 35 seats out of 42 in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 general elections, the target was 22 and we achieved victory in 18 seats. This time, we will win more than 30 seats in Bengal,” said BJP’s former state president Dilip Ghosh.
Taking a jibe at the visit by Shah and Nadda, TMC’s vice president Jayprakash Majumdar said, “The Union Home Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bengal like a daily passenger in the 2021 Assembly election. In a reply, Mamata Banerjee scored 213 goals alone with her one leg injured. So, such tours by leaders from Delhi will not help the BJP.”
The TMC bagged victory in 212 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections and Mamata, who received leg injuries while campaigning in East Midnapore’s Nandigram, addressed rallies across the state riding a wheelchair.