The Union home ministry’s decision to withdraw two battalions of the CRPF from the Jungle Mahal has prompted BJP leaders in the region to send a mass petition to the party’s state president Dilip Ghosh seeking the reversal of the order as they feared the move would have an adverse impact on the performance of the organisation in next year’s Assembly polls.

Senior state BJP leaders have already spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and requested him to reverse the order. “We will write to him (Shah) soon to compensate the withdrawal of the CRPF from the Jungle Mahal,” Dilip Ghosh said.

BJP leaders in Jhargram and West Midnapore said the resurgence of Maoist violence in the region would be seen as a fallout of the decision to pull out CRPF battalions.

“Withdrawal of CRPF battalions at this point of time will adversely affect (BJP’s chances in the Assembly polls) … in Jungle Mahal from where seven MPs got elected (in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls),” the petition stated.

BJP leaders in Jhargram and West Midnapore said the presence of the CRPF battalions had kept a check on Maoist activities and helped them strengthen the party’s organisation.

“The people of the Jungle Mahal are fearing an increase in Maoist activities. If the extremists get control over the area, we will not be able to hold our organisation together. This will be detrimental to our interest as Trinamul’s induction of Chhatradhar Mahato in the area has become a major challenge for us,” said a BJP leader in Lalgarh.

Intelligence sources said Maoist cadres had already started holding meetings at various pockets of Jhargram, Purulia and West Midnapore ahead of the death anniversary of Maoist leader Kishenji, who was gunned down by cops on November 24, 2011.

“We have intelligence inputs that Maoists could try to prove their presence in the area on the death anniversary of Kishenji,” a police source said.