BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and not Union home minister Amit Shah will visit north Bengal before Puja, state president Dilip Ghosh said in Calcutta on Wednesday.

While Shah was slated to arrive on October 17, Nadda’s visit has been scheduled for October 19.

“Naddaji will hold meetings with BJP members and workers. He will also meet people from various strata of the society,” Ghosh told journalists.

According to multiple sources in the party, Shah’s visit was cancelled because of medical reasons.

Shah, who recently recovered from Covid-19, would need more time to heal, the sources said.

“It would’ve been too tiresome for Amitji to travel this far and hold meetings. That is why Naddaji is coming instead,” a BJP leader said.

Ghosh, however, said Shah would visit Bengal after Puja.

No BJP Puja: Ghosh

Dilip Ghosh said on Wednesday that the party wouldn’t organise any Durga Puja and it was not the organisation’s job to conduct such celebrations.

BJP MP Locket Chatterjee had said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would virtually inaugurate the party’s Durga Puja at Salt Lake near here on October 22.

“The BJP is not organising any Durga Puja. I have no such information. There will be a single day cultural programme for which a symbolic idol might be installed,” Ghosh.

He was responding to questions about the BJP’s Puja at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, which is under the Union ministry of culture, at Salt Lake. Ghosh made the statement on a day the EZCC authorities issued a letter to “certify that Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal booked our Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex … from 17-27 October 2020 to organise Durga Puja…”

Although Ghosh ruled out the party holding a Durga Puja, he said: “A certain morcha or cell might hold the Puja. The party isn’t.”

The state BJP chief said it wasn’t the party’s job to organise Durga Puja. “Our aim is to connect with the people during the Puja. We hope the Prime Minister will do that with his speech,” said the Midnapore MP.

Locket declined comments on Ghosh’s statement.