Kolkata: After a go to to West Bengal simply final month, Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah is all set to return to the state subsequent week as panchayat polls loom. His itinerary features a rally in Murshidabad — a district with a 70 per cent Muslim inhabitants the place the Congress and the Communist Celebration on India (Marxist) are nonetheless a drive to be reckoned with.
In a byelection held in February this 12 months, the Congress-Left alliance had wrested the Sagardighi meeting seat in Murshidabad district from the ruling Trinamool Congress. Shah is more likely to tackle a rally within the district on 9 Could.
Political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay instructed ThePrint: “I believe the BJP has chosen Murshidabad district for Amit Shah’s rally to be able to acquire Hindu votes. It had been profitable within the district within the 2021 state polls when it wrested the Baharampur (earlier Berhampore) meeting seat from the Congress.”
He added that the “BJP’s desperation is noteworthy for the reason that occasion has been downsized within the Sagardighi election”.
In 2021, the folks of Murshidabad meeting constituency had for the primary time picked a BJP MLA, Gouri Shankar Ghosh. Nonetheless, Ghosh resigned from the BJP’s state unit final 12 months alleging that the occasion had didn’t acknowledge “organisational weaknesses” in West Bengal.
It’s additionally from Murshidabad district that the CBI on 17 April arrested TMC MLA Jiban Krishna Saha in reference to the alleged academics’ recruitment rip-off within the state.
The district has three Lok Sabha seats, certainly one of which is with the Congress (Baharampur) whereas the TMC has the opposite two (Murshidabad and Jangipur).
Whereas talking at a rally in Birbhum district on 14 April throughout his earlier go to to the state, Shah had set the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) a goal of successful 35 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in subsequent 12 months’s normal election.
Throughout his journey subsequent week, Shah can even mark Rabindranath Tagore’s start anniversary on 8 Could with a go to to the poet’s ancestral house in Jorasanko, Kolkata, adopted by a public programme within the metropolis to pay his tributes.
Additionally learn: From UP to Karnataka, Rajasthan to Nagaland — Amit Shah on gruelling trek to win Modi his third time period
Shah’s give attention to West Bengal
Locket Chatterjee, the BJP MP for Hooghly, instructed ThePrint that “regardless of his packed schedule, Amit Shah retains returning to the state”.
“Amit Shah devoted time to West Bengal throughout 2021. He’s additionally in fixed contact with a number of intellectuals from the state and has all the time focussed right here,” Chatterjee mentioned.
Shah’s recurring visits to West Bengal are believed to haven’t solely boosted the state BJP’s morale however are additionally vital politically, on condition that Trinamool nationwide normal secretary and CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek is holding a two-month-long ‘Jan Sanjog Yatra’ throughout the state to solidify the TMC’s grassroots assist forward of the 2024 election.
Chatting with ThePrint about Shah’s go to, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh termed the minister a “vacationer in Bengal” and mentioned the BJP had been rejected by the folks of the state.
“He can come as many instances as he needs however the BJP won’t be able to realize victory in Bengal. Their desires for 2024 will probably be crushed identical to in 2021 (when the BJP couldn’t win the state polls),” mentioned Ghosh.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Additionally learn: On Bengali new 12 months’s eve, Amit Shah sounds 2024 bugle from TMC-stronghold Birbhum, slams ‘Didi & bhatija’