Strengthen BJP at grassroot level in Bengal, Shah tells party leaders

PTI, Dec 17, 2022, 5:16 PM IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked West Bengal BJP leaders to strengthen the grassroot level of the party in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state ahead of the panchayat polls, a senior party leader said on Saturday.

Shah, who held a meeting with senior state party leaders after coming here, said that the BJP should harness “public discontent against the TMC”, the saffron party’s national Vice-President Dilip Ghosh told PTI.

On Shah’s meeting held at the state BJP headquarters, the TMC’s West Bengal spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar claimed that it was a futile attempt to save his party’s state unit from disintegrating.

”Amit-ji is alarmed about the present situation in West Bengal – how TMC leaders have swindled public money and central funds, taken bribes to give jobs to ineligible candidates in schools, the continuing attacks on our men. He wants to see an end to this situation,” Ghosh said.

Shah knows that the people want change in West Bengal, but to counter the TMC’s attacks and threats, the BJP will combat them democratically,” Ghosh, a former state party chief, said.

The Union home minister held a half-an-hour meeting on Friday night with leaders like Ghosh, state president Sukanta Majumdar, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and others.

To a question, if Shah also asked leaders to sink their differences, Ghosh said, ”Amit-ji knows we stand united. There can be differences of opinion among individuals at times, but that happens in a family. No such issue was discussed.” Shah came here to chair the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting at the state secretariat on Saturday.

Majumdar claimed that contrary to the narrative weaved by state BJP leaders, Shah did not discuss the roadmap for the upcoming panchayat poll campaign. The TMC leader said, ”That narrative is for public consumption, to boost the sagging morale of the rank and file. Do you think a half an hour meeting with around 15 party leaders serves any real purpose?”