Amit Shah’s Bengal visit begins today, to address NJP rally – Times of India

KOLKATA/SILIGURI: Union home minister Amit Shah is expected to arrive in Bengal on Thursday on a two-day visit, his first since BJP received a drubbing in the state polls last year. The three-day tour initially planned has been cut short and Shah will leave for Delhi on Friday evening.
Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar on Wednesday said the Union minister would touch down in Kolkata in the morning, and visit a BSF camp at Hingalganj, North 24 Parganas, besides the border outpost at Narmada. He will stop at Kalyani and Haridaspur in the Matua belt before leaving for Bagdogra in the afternoon.
Shah will address a BJP rally at the New Jalpaiguri railway sports grounds on Friday morning and may tour the Teen Bigha corridor. He will return to Kolkata in the afternoon and hold a meeting with the state party leaders before attending a cultural programme at Victoria Memorial.
The Union minister’s Siliguri trip comes at a time when Trinamool, for the first time, has wrested control of the local corporation and won other municipalities, giving Mamata Banerjee’s party a boost in north Bengal where BJP had won most parliamentary seats in 2019. State BJP leaders are looking forward to how he addresses sentiments in north Bengal when some party MPs and MLAs have voiced their demand for a separate province.
Resentment among the Gorkhas in the Hills and plains was quite pronounced a day ahead of Shah’s visit. Bharatiya Gorkha Suraksha Parishad, a new Hills outfit, put up posters to underscore how BJP had failed the community. “How long will the Gorkhas have to endure lies? We want an answer before your visit,” one of the posters read.
The Rajbanshis too are a divided lot, as is evident from the reverses suffered by BJP in the Dinhata assembly byelection and civic polls in Cooch Behar. BJP seniors, led by Malati Rava Roy, knocked on the doors of Koch icon Ananta Rai Maharaj, inviting him to Shah’s rally. The Union minister had broken bread with Ananta Rai during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The self-proclaimed ruler’s response to the BJP invite is significant given that CM Banerjee visited him a few months ago.
In south Bengal, the Matuas are expected to give Shah a time-frame for implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. It has been months since Union minister and BJP’s Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur addressed Matua gatherings in North 24 Parganas and Nadia on the issue.
Shah’s visit comes as a reassurance for the state party, which is grappling with defections and faction feuds. “Bengal BJP is doing good work. Our leaders have appreciated our agitation programme (over the law and order situation). The Union home minister is coming tomorrow. The PM may visit in October. Party president J P Nadda is also expected to come,” BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said.