Nadda offers prayers at ISKCON temple in Bengal

PTI, Jan 19, 2023, 1:42 PM IST

BJP president J P Nadda visited the revered ISKCON temple in Mayapur in West Bengal’s Nadia district on Thursday and offered prayers, as he kicked-off his two-day tour of the state. Senior party leaders, including West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, accompanied Nadda to the global headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Nadda, who arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday night, is scheduled to hold organisational and public meetings in the district during the day.

”On Thursday, he will address a public meeting at Bethuadahari, after which he will hold an organisational meeting with leaders of Nadia north organisational district and assess the party’s performance in the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat,” BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay said.

The BJP lost the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat to the Trinamool Congress in the 2019 elections.

Nadda’s visit is a part of the central leadership’s ‘Pravas’ campaign to strengthen its organisation in 144 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country that the party had lost by a slender margin in the 2019 elections.

Over the next few months, Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are scheduled to address 12 rallies each, covering 24 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The BJP had won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 polls.

Earlier this week, Nadda’s term was extended till June next year at the party’s national executive meeting.

The Trinamool Congress, however, declined to attach much importance to Nadda’s visit.

”We have seen how the BJP’s central leaders had camped in West Bengal before the 2021 assembly polls. But, the party had to face defeat,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.