The BJP has commissioned six of its central ministers to carry out the campaign in Bengal. (Figurative)
Ahead of Interior Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Bengal, the BJP has assigned different parts of the state to six Union ministers to prepare for the assembly elections in five months’ time.
These ministers have been tasked with taking over the BJP campaign in different locations in the Lok Sabha of Bengal.
The ministers are Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Munda, Pralhad Patel, Sanjeev Baliyan, Nityanand Rai, and Mansukh Bhai Mandaviya. Electoral districts will also be assigned to Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Deputy Minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, and Madhya Pradesh’s Interior Minister, Narottam Mishra.
Pralhad Patel has taken six Lok Sabha seats and the others have been assigned five Lok Sabha seats each.
They have been asked to visit their assigned seats at Lok Sabha every month and to dedicate 10-15 days at a time until the assembly elections, which will likely be held in March-April.
Sources say his task involves strengthening the party’s organization at the grassroots level, identifying key issues in the assembly seats he is in charge of and seeking candidates.
They will coordinate with the central leadership of the BJP and report directly to Amit Shah, the president of the BJP, JP Nadda, and the organization secretary general BL Santosh.
Interior Minister Amit Shah’s trip to Bengal has been preceded by a series of resignations from the Trinamool Congress of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
At least four rebels have left Trinamool in the last 24 hours and one of them, Suvendu Adhikari, is likely to join the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah.
The Union Interior Minister, the party’s key strategist for Bengal, has set a target of 200 out of 294 state seats for assembly elections.
The BJP sees it as a realistic target after making spectacular strides in last year’s national elections. The BJP increased its tally from 2 to 18 of Bengal’s 41 seats, leaving Trinamool stunned.
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