Union home minister Amit Shah will visit Calcutta on January 12 for the second time in less than a month and take part in an event organised to mark the birth anniversary of one of Bengal’s greatest icons, Swami Vivekananda.

“Amitji is coming to Calcutta on January 12 and will be present at a Yuva Morcha event organised to observe the birth anniversary of Swamiji,” said Shankudeb Panda, a vice-president of the youth wing of the party’s state unit.

Shah was here on December 19 and 20, when he visited places associated with three foremost Bengali icons, Swami Vivekananda, Khudiram Bose and Rabindranath Tagore.

Sources said repeated attempts of senior leaders like Shah to associate the BJP with Bengal’s icons went to show the concern of the leadership over Trinamul’s persistent attack on the BJP as a party of outsiders.

“Amitji wants to lead the battle against this outsider tag. It is true that Amitji’s rebuttal of claims made by the Trinamul Congress will have more effect than that of any other state-level functionary,” said a BJP leader.

The isolation of the saffron camp amongst Bengal’s political parties became even more telling on Tuesday when junior Left Front partner, Forward Bloc, invited every other party in the state to form a steering committee to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary but left out the BJP.

Asked why the BJP was not invited, Chatterjee said: “BJP has violated Netaji’s ideology of secularism. In Azad Hind Fauj and the first free Indian government, Netaji had included people from all communities. The BJP, however, wants an India for Hindus only. They are anti-Netaji.”

TMC with baul family

Folk singer Basudeb Das Baul, who had hosted Amit Shah for lunch in Santiniketan on Sunday, was taken to a Trinamul office in Bolpur on Tuesday and assured of financial help so that his daughter could get a diploma in education.

“Amit Shah came and had his lunch at Basudeb’s house but did not hear his problems. When we came to know that his daughter aspired to become a teacher and needed help for a course in education, we have promised all help,” said Anubrata Mondal, Birbhum Trinamul chief.

Basudeb’s daughter Sumana Das completed her masters’ in history two years ago but could not study diploma in education as it required the family to pay a course fee of Rs 1.5 lakh.

“Kesto da has promised to help my daughter complete her degree. We are hopeful that she will get the job of a school teacher,” Basudeb said.