State and central BJP leaders, who came to Siliguri on Monday for the Uttarkanya Abhiyan protest march, asserted that north Bengal, a region where it won seven Lok Sabha seats last year, was prominent on their radar for Bengal elections.

State party chief Dilip Ghosh, national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general-secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, state general secretary Sayantan Basu and almost all party MPs from Bengal were in attendance. BJP MP from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya, who is also the national president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, flew in.

Tejasvi lambasted Trinamul. “North Bengal has been neglected for years. I have come across thousands of youths who are from this place but travel to Bangalore as they don’t have jobs here. The Trinamul government could not bring in development to the region but brought in infiltrators from Bangladesh,” he said.

A senior BJP leader from here said most prominent faces of the state BJP and some national leaders came for Monday’s protest.

“Even Tejasvi Surya flew in. Our party is organising political activities across the state but we have hardly seen so many leaders sharing the dais for a protest march. This reconfirms that central leaders are concentrating on north Bengal,” the leader said.

The BJP leadership, sources said, have also planned to redraw their strategies for the hills and foothills after losing the support of long-time ally, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung.

Gurung, who addressed his first public rally in Siliguri on Sunday after over three years, openly flayed the BJP for alleged failed promises and said it would have to struggle for every vote in north Bengal.

“For past 11 years, the BJP piggybacked on the Morcha to win the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. Now that both Morcha factions are with Mamata Banerjee, BJP has to plan new strategies to win the Gorkha population,” said an observer.

In the 2019 parliamentary elections, BJP secured a lead in 38, Trinamul in 12 segments and Congress in four of the 54 Assembly constituencies in north Bengal. “Trinamul could not win even one Lok Sabha seat in north Bengal. It bolstered BJP’s confidence and the party’s central leadership set a target of 50 Assembly seats from here in the upcoming elections,” the source said.

BJP president J.P. Nadda visited Siliguri in October and galvanised party leaders of north Bengal, the source added.

At internal party meetings, feedback was collected from elected representatives and party leaders across ranks. Many parallel posts and bodies were formed to work for state polls.

In the coming days, the BJP plans to bring in central ministers to tea belts to interact with communities and stakeholders in tea and tourism sectors. Central and state leaders will also hold public rallies here. Committees from the district to booth levels, and the party’s frontal organisations, would take up programmes on local issues and implement the party’s “Ar Noi Annay (No more injustice)” campaign.