Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to camp in poll-bound West Bengal every month from January 2021 to bolster the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s campaign in the run-up to the crucial assembly elections, a top leader of the party’s Bengal unit has said.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister is scheduled to virtually address the centenary celebrations of Visva-Bharati University – set up by Rabindranath Tagore – in West Bengal’s Santiniketan at 11am on Thursday.
“He (Modi) would be coming every month. The dates haven’t been fixed yet,” Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal BJP president told mediapersons on Wednesday, while answering a question on whether the Prime Minister is expected in February.
With less than five months left for the Bengal assembly polls, union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda have been touring the state every month.
In December, while Nadda had visited the state in the second week, Shah arrived on a two-day tour in the third week. Meanwhile other senior leaders of the party from across India are also dropping in.
BJP’s national president of Mahila Morcha Vanathi Srinivasan, union cabinet minister Prahlad Singh Patel and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Chandra Maurya were in West Bengal earlier this week attending the party’s outreach programs, addressing organisational meetings and taking part in protests.
The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress has taken a dig at the PM’s likely tours in the state.
“He may come every day. So what? This proves that he has fewer tasks in hand,” Partha Chatterjee, state education minister and TMC’s secretary general, told mediapersons.
Buoyed by its impressive gains in the 2019 Lok Sabha pols where the party won 18 of the 42 seats, the BJP has set a target of winning more than 200 seats in the 294-seated legislative assembly this time around.
The party is putting together its biggest election machinery ever in the eastern state and as a part of it, several BJP leaders will be arriving in Bengal from Delhi and other states to work with the local unit for polls.