Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to carpet-bomb Bengal in early March with three visits in six days, looking to kick-start his party’s general-election campaign in a state it covets.

Modi was already scheduled to address a rally in Barasat on March 6; he will now address two others, in Arambagh on March 1 and in Krishnanagar on March 2. The BJP fancies its chances in all three Lok Sabha seats this time.

At the Barasat rally, Modi is expected to speak to some of the Sandeshkhali women
who have complained of sexual assault by Trinamul strongman Sheikh Shahjahan’s henchmen.

“The Prime Minister usually starts his campaign after the announcement of elections. Although he is coming to Bengal just before the Lok Sabha polls are announced, he is expected to start the campaign for us here,” BJP Midnapore MP Dilip Ghosh said.

Modi’s March 1-2 trip will precede a March 3-5 visit to Bengal by the full bench of the Election Commission of India. The commission had initially announced a March 4-6 tour but a revised schedule was released on Friday, apparently to avoid a clash with Modi’s March 6 rally.

A political scientist who has been studying Bengal said Modi’s proposed visits reflected a carefully worked out strategy.

“On March 1 and 2, he is going to constituencies with women MPs — Aparupa Poddar (Trinamul) in Arambagh and (the recently disqualified) Mahua Moitra in Krishnanagar. It’s obvious that the BJP is prioritising propaganda to woo women voters,” he said.

He added that Moitra, who has been a thorn in the BJP’s side, represented a constituency where the saffron party has had a fairly long presence, and that Poddar’s meagre victory margin of 1,142 votes in 2019 made Arambagh a prime target for the BJP.

“More important, there is supposed to be a ‘women’s conference’ at Barasat where Modi is likely to interact with some of the Sandeshkhali victims. That is likely to be turned into a spectacle by the saffron ecosystem, especially with International Women’s Day (March 8) round the corner. It will need to be countered directly by Mamata Banerjee herself,” he said.

Asked about Modi’s proposed interactions with Sandeshkhali women in Barasat, Bengal finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said Trinamul need not comment on the matter but expressed suspicion that people from “elsewhere” might be brought to the event.

“We don’t know, we have to find out who he is bringing — whether they are from Sandeshkhali at all or from elsewhere,” she said.

“Anybody can come and meet the Prime Minister. It’s up to the women. He ought to introspect whether he should look at this (Sandeshkhali) as the Prime Minister of India or as the foremost leader of the BJP.”

BJP leaders say the party aims to escalate Sandeshkhali to the level of Singur and Nandigram, which had helped bring about a change of guard in Bengal. The party hopes the issue will resonate with women voters, who have supported Mamata overwhelmingly in recent elections. “Mamata Banerjee is the chief minister, but more important, she is a woman. I cannot imagine how a woman chief minister can be so insensitive towards the problems of women,” state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said.