KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday set an ambitious target for the West Bengal BJP unit, asking it to win a minimum of 20 out of 28 assembly seats under four Lok Sabha constituencies, Dum Dum, Kolkata North, Kolkata South and Jadavpur, in the forthcoming Assembly elections scheduled next year in the state.
The BJP has not won a single Assembly seat in these four parliamentary constituencies in the past two Assembly elections since 2016.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party had marginal leads in only two Assembly segments, Jorashanko and Shyampukur, against the nearest ruling Trinamool Congress candidates, out of the total 28 Assembly seats.
Jorashanko and Shyampukur fall under the Kolkata North Lok Sabha constituency.
However, the BJP trailed the Trinamool Congress in the remaining 26 Assembly seats in terms of the results of the last Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing the party’s internal meeting at the Science City auditorium on Wednesday, attended by public representatives both past and present, Shah outlined the party’s election strategy for the upcoming polls, the battle for Bengal, likely to be held in April–May.
Citing the party’s rise from winning just three Assembly seats in 2016 to 77 seats in 2021, the Union Home Minister said BJP leaders and workers must ensure victory in 20 seats in the Kolkata region.
The state BJP unit organised an internal programme, ‘Mahanagar Karmi Sammelan’, where organisational leaders and workers from the four Lok Sabha constituencies were present.
On Tuesday, speaking to reporters at a press conference, Shah confidently claimed that the BJP would form the government in the state in 2026. The Assembly elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held during April–May next year.
“BJP had a 17 per cent vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal and it came down to 10 per cent in the 2016 Assembly polls in the state. But there was a phenomenal rise of the BJP in the state after we won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 with 41 per cent votes,” Shah told reporters during the press conference.
“In the 2021 Assembly elections, we won 77 seats with 38 per cent votes. In the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2024, we bagged 12 seats and the vote share was 39 per cent in the state. So, this consistency in terms of winning seats in both parliamentary and Assembly polls and vote share shows we will form the government in Bengal next year,” Shah said.
However, a section of BJP workers present at the meeting expressed doubts over the feasibility of the target.
“Our party has a history of getting leads in several Assembly seats in Kolkata North, Kolkata South and Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituencies in previous general elections, but it is very difficult to win 20 out of 28 seats in Kolkata and its outskirts. We can win hardly eight to 10 seats,” a BJP organisational leader said.
Shah also sought to project a unified front, while indicating former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh as one of the main faces of the saffron camp for the elections.
Dilip, who has reportedly been sidelined in the party for the past several months, was invited to the closed door meeting attended by the party’s MPs, MLAs, civic body councillors and organisational portfolio holders.
After wrapping up his tightly packed 48 hour visit to West Bengal since Monday night, Shah paid his obeisance at the Thanthania Kali Temple in central Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon before leaving for the airport for his departure to Delhi.
Shah reached the over 300 year old sanctum, dedicated to the Hindu tantric tradition, at around 3.45 pm after concluding his closed door meeting with party workers at the Science City auditorium in the eastern parts of the city.
A protest close to the venue was staged by Bengal Congress workers on College Street, where they raised ‘go back’ slogans against the Union minister.