Union home minister Amit Shah is likely to visit Bengal before Durga Puja and hold meetings with BJP workers to prepare them for the Assembly elections, said the party’s state president Dilip Ghosh.
“We have requested Amit-ji to visit Bengal before the puja and hold meetings with party workers to energise them...We are working on the date,” said Ghosh.
On Thursday, Shah held a meeting with Bengal BJP leaders like Ghosh, national vice-president Mukul Roy, the party’s in charge for Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya, co-minder Arvind Menon, national joint general secretary (organisation) Shivprakash and former national secretary Rahul Sinha in New Delhi. BJP national president J.P. Nadda was present at the meeting.
Nadda is also likely visit Bengal soon to meet party workers, Ghosh said after Thursday’s meeting.
According to BJP sources, Mission Bengal is close to Shah’s heart and he takes keen interest in the nitty-gritty of politics in the state.
“In our party, the final call on any matter is taken by the party’s president. Though Nadda-ji took over as president in January 2020, Amit-ji has always taken interest in Bengal. He has been overseeing the affairs of the state for the past few years,” said a source.
The source said the Bengal leaders were looking forward to Thursday’s meeting as they couldn’t reach Shah over the last month or so because of his illness.
“Today, we spoke to him about recent developments in the state... All of us told him that his visit would create the right momentum for us to prepare for the next year’s polls,” the source added.
A section of the party thinks the state unit’s excessive dependence on national leaders like Shah is harming the BJP’s prospects in the state.
Multiple leaders this correspondent spoke to said that the fact that Shah and Nadda would have to come all the way from Delhi to encourage workers proved that the party still lacked a face in Bengal.
“Dilipda has gained much popularity over the past few years. But the fact that we are so dependent on Delhi leaders even a few months before the polls proves that we are not fully prepared for the battle,” a source said.