In a maiden move to woo the farmers of Bengal, Union home minister Amit Shah, also the first cooperation minister, will meet around 3,000 farmers from multiple agrarian districts in Hooghly's Arambagh on October 24.
A source said that in the meeting with the farmers, Shah is likely to address the peasant community on how the Narendra Modi government has taken up multiple farmer-friendly initiatives by bolstering the cooperative movement.
The programme is scheduled to take place at Kalipur Maidan, adjacent to Arambagh town.
In July, Shah had announced a target to set up two lakh primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) across the country.
A mission of the third Modi government is to establish one PACS in each panchayat area of India.
Bengal has 5,000 PACS, among which 4,600 are active.
The farmers, including those who are marginal, are members of those societies.
"Amit Shah-ji is likely to announce the number of cooperative societies that Bengal would get under the scheme," said a source in the BJP aware of the plans.
Shah's meeting with the farmers is deemed significant as the BJP has repeatedly failed to win seats in agrarian belts in the past, including in the recently concluded elections.
A BJP leader said that the majority of the farmers would attend Shah's meeting from various pockets of Hooghly. However, there would be a representation from peasants in various south Bengal districts, including East Burdwan, which is considered to be the rice bowl of Bengal.
"This is the first time that Amit Shah-ji will directly interact with Bengal's farmers and inform them about the central government's multiple policies for them. Although this is a government event, it is politically significant for us as farmers will learn how they benefit from the central schemes," said Biman Ghosh, the BJP's Arambagh organisational district chief.
Despite several efforts by the Bengal BJP to reach out to the farmers, it has not been successful in making significant inroads into the agrarian regions of the state, where Trinamool remains much stronger.
In this year's general election, the BJP lost three important seats — Hooghly, Arambagh, and Bardhaman-Durgapur — in agrarian belts that it had won in 2019, to Trinamool.
"We have a Kisan Morcha, but the unit has not made satisfactory outreach among the farmers. So, such an event, particularly by a leader like Amit Shah, would certainly be significant," said a BJP leader.
According to him, the Modi government has decided to rejuvenate the cooperative movement by 2029 to strengthen economic growth at the grassroots by forming cooperatives in the agriculture, dairy, and pisciculture sectors.
As the Union cooperation minister, Shah recently announced cooperative societies for farmers across the country.
Such schemes are important for the BJP in Bengal, which is targeting the 2026 Assembly polls.
However, multiple sources said that the BJP’s move to woo the farmers was easier said than done.
State government schemes like Krishak Bandhu, Kisan Credit Card, and free crop insurance have created a significant impact among Bengal farmers. "As a result, the TMC’s performance has always been strong in the agrarian belt," said a Trinamool leader.
Apart from Trinamool, the CPM's peasant wing, the All India Kisan Sabha, is still active in agrarian belts of East Burdwan, Hooghly and Howrah.
Kisan Sabha leaders claimed the entire goal of the Modi government was to "ruin" the country's cooperatives. One of the leaders, Amal Halder, said: "The Union government has imposed taxes on the income of the cooperative societies, which directly affects poor farmers. This BJP government can't be a friend of farmers."
