Amit Shah may take direct charge of BJP in Bengal before polls

New Delhi: To contain the infighting within the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the central leadership of the party has decided to take control of the upcoming Assembly elections from the national capital. According to sources, Home Minister Amit Shah himself is likely to monitor the electoral process for the party in Bengal.

Sources within the BJP have also said that Amit Shah is going to undertake multiple visits to the state and hold meetings with the state leadership of the BJP after the Bihar elections get over.

“There has been a series of reports about serious infighting within the state unit of the BJP. The central leadership is aware that this could jeopardise the prospect of the party from coming to power in Bengal where it currently has a strong chance of dethroning the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government. Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda are looking into this issue directly. State observers of the party, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arvind Menon, have also been directed to ensure that the differences are contained and each worker of the party works towards achieving the goal,” a BJP functionary told The Sunday Guardian.

“After the Bihar elections, Home Minister Amit Shah is going to take direct charge of the party in Bengal. He is also getting a new office made for himself at the Rajarhat area in Kolkata. One is likely to see a greater presence of Amit Shah in Kolkata and Bengal,” the BJP functionary quoted above said.

The fact that the central leadership of the BJP is taking a keen interest in the affairs of the party in Bengal was also evident from the Nabbano Chalo Abhiyan of the BJP held earlier this month, when the party’s newly appointed Yuva Morcha president, Tejasvi Surya was asked to go to Bengal and attend the rally along with the Bengal leadership.

The recent visit of BJP National President J.P. Nadda to North Bengal, where he held a series of meetings with the state leadership, is also being seen as the central BJP taking control of the party in Bengal. This was followed by a virtual inauguration ceremony of a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata on the occasion of the first day of Durga Puja by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Amit Shah is, however, yet to visit the state. Shah’s visit, which was likely to happen between 16 and 19 October, was cancelled since he was recovering from Covid-19.

The BJP has emerged as the principal Opposition party in Bengal. The party won 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the first time and since then, the prospect of the party to win the 2021 Assembly elections in Bengal has increased. The BJP has also been able to grow into the interiors of the state, where the party just four years back had little or no presence.

The BJP is also banking on the strong anti-incumbency of 10 years of the Mamata Banerjee rule in the state, which the BJP claims has been marred with corruption and malpractices.