Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday told his party colleagues to take a vow of securing 200 seats in the Bengal elections, and bury all differences to achieve it.

The target set by Shah at a closed-door meeting with party leaders in Bankura became public when one of the attendees mistakenly streamed a part of his speech live on Facebook. “This is apparently an organisational meeting. But this is actually an opportunity to take a vow that we will come to power in Bengal with 200 seats,” he said.

Shah is in Bengal on a two-day visit to take stock of the party’s organisation against the backdrop of factionalism in the state unit.

Sources in the BJP who attended the meeting said that Shah referred to such incidents as fights in a large family. “He said that even if a father and a son fight, they will finally come together,” said a party leader. Shah also indicated the state unit would also have to be “accommodative” of people from other parties, especially the CPM, a source said.

The BJP’s central leaders have trained their eyes on Bengal, said a source, after informal surveys apparently indicated a growing disenchantment with Trinamul rule. “We will come to power in Bengal with a sweeping two-thirds majority. The death knell of the Mamata Banerjee government is ringing. I appeal to the people of Bengal to uproot this government and give the BJP a chance,” Shah told mediapersons earlier in the day.

In Bankura, when asked who would be the BJP’s face in Bengal, Shah said: “When needed, the face will come.”

Some BJP leaders said meeting the 200-seat target was easier said than done. “Organisationally, we still need to do a lot of work to be in a position to win 200 seats... But one can understand that he set the target as a leader so that the party supporters get enthused,” said a state BJP leader.

The source said that the Shah told party colleagues to cash in on the discontent with the Mamata government and create a narrative that the central benefits don’t reach Bengal because of the state government.

“The central government benefits that should have reached the poor, farmers, dalits and the people from tribal and backward groups have been stalled by Mamata Banerjee,” Shah said in the interaction with journalists and later repeated it in the closed-door meeting.

Senior BJP leaders said that Shah’s words were carefully chosen. “He was speaking in an area that has huge tribal population and they have voted for us in the last Lok Sabha polls... He sent out a clear message that the Narendra Modi government is sympathetic towards them, but Mamata Banerjee isn’t,” a state BJP leader said.

Shah met some 200 representatives of socially backward classes in the evening. The de facto No 2 of the Modi government asked leaders of the state unit to reach out to these social groups and inform them of central schemes that might benefit them and how the state government created hurdles to it. Sources said a committee headed by BJP’s co-minder for the state Arvind Menon and national secretary Anupam Hazra was formed to liaison with these groups.