BJP chief Amit Shah will be heading eastwards in September with visits scheduled for Odisha and West Bengal in the next fortnight, an emphasis that stems directly from the “Mission 350” plan for the 2019 general elections he outlined at a recent party meeting. Mr. Shah had said the party needed to expand in areas where it had had no presence earlier but got an encouraging number of votes in the 2014 elections.
“He will be travelling to Odisha between September 6 and 8 and to West Bengal between September 11 and 13 as part of the organisational consolidation programme that he initiated in May this year,” said a senior general secretary of the BJP.
Mr. Shah, while in West Bengal, is likely to refer to the Durga immersion controversy where his party has protested against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s administrative order that the immersion of idols of Goddess Durga cannot take place on the evening of September 30, Vijay Dashmi, or on October 1, Muharram.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga has already tweeted pictures of his air tickets booked for Kolkata to “dare” the State government to stop him from immersing the idol on October 1.
Second visit
This will be Mr. Shah’s second visit to the State this year. In May, he launched his “booth chalo” programme from the Naxalbari block, considered the symbolic home of Left-wing extremism in India. In fact, Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia had adopted Hathighisha village, the birthplace of legendary Naxal leader Kanu Sanyal, under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
In Odisha, Mr. Shah is likely to speak strongly against the Biju Janata Dal-led government. “Unlike other States where we have allies, in Odisha, West Bengal, Telangana and Tripura we want to expand our own strength,” said a senior party office-bearer.
