The next few weeks will see frequent visits to poll-bound West Bengal by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda to keep up the momentum of its electoral charge against the Trinamool Congress government. State Forest Minister Rajib Banerjee likely to join the BJP when Mr. Shah visits Bengal at the end of January.
The frequent visits and schedules for the events were decided at a review meeting on Bengal held in New Delhi attended by Mr. Shah, Mr. Nadda, BJP general secretary in charge of the State Kailash Vijaywargiya, State unit chief Dilip Ghosh and general secretary organisation in charge of the state, Shiv Prakash.
“To keep up the momentum, frequent visits by these leaders will take place and some significant joinings will also happen,” said a senior leader present at the meeting. Sources in the party also said survey reports on various seats etc. were studied during the meeting.
While there have been several cross-overs from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP, the party is now taking a call on just how many people will be accommodated after the big ticket inclusion of Suvendu Adhikari last month.
“Many MLAs have approached us and while it is a sign that the BJP is the main political force going up against the TMC, we are not interested in taking on the anti-incumbency of many of these. We feel that TMC itself will drop a large number of sitting MLAs from its list for this very reason, and therefore, we have to proceed looking at all angles,” said a BJP source.
TMC MP Shatabdi Roy had created a flutter on Friday after a long facebook post by her complaining about internal party matters and was even slated to fly in to New Delhi to meet BJP leaders. Sources said she was placated after a visit to senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.
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