Amit Shah last visited the state on April 14, and has set a target of winning 35 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in next year’s general election. (PTI/FILE)
Amit Shah’s proposed visit in May also comes amid a controversy over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to approach the Union Home Minister after the Trinamool Congress lost its 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 visit to the state within a month as the party prepares for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
On May 8, Shah is expected to be at Baharampur in Murshidabad, and on May 9, he is likely to visit Rabindranath Tagore’s birth place in Jorasanko to mark the birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate.
Shah last visited the state on April 14 and has set a target of winning 35 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the general elections next year. Sources say the party has identified 24 weak seats where it did not perform well in the 2019 polls. Sources said Shah and BJP president JP Nadda would personally hold meetings in these constituencies.
Shah and Nadda will hold talks with party workers in all the seats and discuss ground issues.
“The fact that Shah and Nadda are coming is a big deal for us. When he meets local leaders, it is not a monologue. He listens to our every problem. Getting tips and encouragement from Shah means a lot to the local workers,” a senior leader told News18.
Marking Tagore’s birth anniversary at his birth place will help the BJP counter the ruling Trinamool Congress’s 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 for a target of 35 seats next year.
Shah’s proposed visit in May also comes amid controversy over the chief minister Mamata Banerjee He refused to approach the Union Home Minister after the Trinamool Congress lost its national party status.
Rejecting Bengal Leader of Opposition Shubhendu Adhikari’s claim that she had made the call, she said, “If it is proved that I have given TMC national party status to Amit Shah, I will resign. ”
The official claimed on Tuesday that after the Election Commission revoked TMC’s national party status, Banerjee called Shah to request him to revoke the decision.
“It was common practice to review the national party status of all parties after ten years. That is, the next review should have been done in 2026…but they did it in 2019…the name of my party will remain ‘All India Trinamool Congress’. If BJP has any problem, they can approach the Election Commission and we will approach the common people.
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