BJP chief Nadda to begin two-day Bengal tour today; Mamata to hold rally in Bongaon

Nadda, who will hold a series of meetings with the state leaders in the election-bound state, will also inaugurate nine state party offices

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jagat Prakash Nadda will begin a two-day tour of West Bengal on Wednesday to participate in various programmes targeted at strengthening the party’s cadre as well as its presence at the booth level.

BJP national president JP Nadda. (File photo)

Nadda is expected to land at the NSCBI airport in Kolkata around 12noon. He is scheduled to inaugurate the BJP’s new office in Hastings. Party leaders said this would be the BJP’s war room for the forthcoming assembly polls. He would also virtually inaugurate nine BJP offices in various districts across the state.

“Around 3pm, he is scheduled to take part in the Griha Samparka Abhijan (door-to-door campaign) in Bhowanipore area and later, offer puja at the Kali temple in Kalighat. Union home minister Amit Shah had also performed puja at the temple during his visit to the state earlier this year,” said a BJP leader.

Buoyed by its impressive gains in the 2019 election, in which the BJP won 18 out of the state’s 42 parliamentary seats, the party is now hoping to replicate the performance in the 2021 West Bengal assembly.

On Thursday, Nadda is expected to camp in Diamond Harbour, another TMC stronghold, adjacent to Kolkata in south Bengal. Diamond Harbour is Abhishek Banerjee’s constituency, who is TMC MP and nephew of the chief minister. The BJP president will address a press conference and also party cadres and will interact with members of the fishermen community.

Top BJP leaders in West Bengal had earlier said that Shah and Nadda are expected to visit the state separately every month till the assembly elections are over.

“He will also participate in a community outreach programme on BJP’s mission of Aur Noi Anyay,” Anil Baluni, the national media in charge of the party said.

On Saturday, the party launched a campaign against what it calls the misrule of the Mamata Banerjee government in the state.

It has formed a 117-member election management team to prepare for the upcoming election. The team has been divided into 31 units and will be responsible for preparing the campaign, data collection, booth management and social media management for their party. Senior party leaders and Union ministers have been deputed to work in the state.

Nadda’s tour is part of his 120-day national tour that is aimed at strengthening the parties presence across the country.

Meanwhile Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, who is camping in the districts of south Bengal, is scheduled to address a rally in Bongaon, a seat dominated by the Dalit community and won by the BJP for the first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee has been taking on the BJP from public rallies in the districts where the BJP has made deep inroads. On Wednesday, she would address the rally at Bongaon, a bastion of the Matuas, a Dalit community.

The Matua community has a presence across at least 70 out of 294 assembly seats in the state. In the 2019 elections, the Matuas supported BJP’s Shantanu Thakur who defeated his aunt, ruling Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Bala Thakur, from Bongaon.

Before the 2019 polls the All India Matua Mahasangha, a Dalit body, had played host to a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally.