If the BJP’s hoardings welcoming Amit Shah here are any indication, West Bengal will see a “different” party president when he arrives here on Monday.
The publicity materials have an aggressive tone, unlike in the past, and identify Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a jamati (“one attached to Muslim organisations”) and a jehadi (“warrior of Islam”). They feature a smiling Mr. Shah, along with BJP State unit president Dilip Ghosh.
The roads from the airport to the BJP office in central Kolkata are full of hoardings featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee and BJS stalwart Deendayal Upadhyay.
“The tone of the hoardings has never been so aggressive during Mr. Shah’s earlier visits to the city, and we expect him to give a strong message to the [State BJP] leaders,” a State-level party official said. In earlier meetings, even those before the Assembly elections in 2017, Mr. Shah showed restraint in targeting Ms. Banerjee, demoralising BJP workers. “But it would be different from now on, we are told,” the official said.
Day-long meeting
Mr. Shah will hold a day-long meeting of the BJP’s office-bearers, along with the district presidents. One of the key issues that he is expected to address is the setting up of booth-level committees for the panchayat and Lok Sabha elections.
The State has over 77,000 polling booths and the State leadership was given a target of reaching as many of them as possible and setting up committees to monitor and man those booths during the elections. The BJP State unit has allegedly failed to reach more than “18,000 booths”, another office-bearer said.
“Actually, we have had committees in not more than 12,000 booths and 18,000 is an overestimate,” the office-bearer said. Mr. Shah will seek a clarification from the State leadership why the leadership could not set up teams in more booths as a part of the BJP’s Bistarak Yojana (expansion drive) launched in the first week of June.
“To be honest, it was too short a time. Besides, the Trinamool Congress cadres are threatening us at every stage,” the BJP official said. However, the excuses are ostensibly not acceptable to the national leadership, and prior to Mr. Shah’s visit, national observer Kailash Vijayvargiya snubbed the top State leadership. “They were basically questioned about the lack of penetration among the city’s intellectuals and the failure to reach more booths,” the official said.
Mr. Shah has a series of other programmes lined up in the city, including a meeting with the city’s intellectuals. “However, it is not clear how many of the city’s intellectuals could be reached and invited [and] Mr. Vijayvargiya got upset,” the official said. Mr. Shah is expected to meet them on September 12 and discuss the depth of misunderstandings among various factions of the State BJP.
