Amit Shah to visit West Bengal on Rabindra Jayanti, to address rally in Murshidabad

Kolkata: In a bid to woo the people of West Bengal with BJP's affection towards great poet Rabindranath Tagore ahead of the upcoming Panchayat Election and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, union home minister Amit Shah will devote two days in the state during the iconic son-of-the soil's birth anniversary celebration next month.

This is the second tour of the BJP heavyweight here within a month after he set a target from a rally in Birbhum on April 14 before his party to win 35 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats of Bengal next year. On May 8, Mr Shah will address a rally in Murshidabad, a district with a vast minority population along the India-Bangladesh border, after landing in the state, according to BJP sources.

The district recently witnessed the first ever electoral defeat of the ruling Trinamul Congress in an Assembly bypoll, Sagardighi, to the Congress since 2011 and also gave two seats, Berhampore and Murshidabad, to the BJP for the first time in the last Assembly polls.

Next day, the union home minister is expected to visit Jorasanko Thakurbari, the birthplace of Rabindranath, in central Kolkata in the morning to pay tribute to Tagore on the occasion of Rabindra Jayanti, popularly known as Ponchishe Boishakh in Bengali calendar year.

State BJP president and Balurghat MP Sukanta Majumdar said during a recent visit to Murshidabad, "Mr Shah has expressed his willingness to attend Rabindra Jayanti celebration in Kolkata. He will garland Tagore's statue at his birthplace in Jorasanko Thakurbari."

After chairing party meetings, the union home minister will attend a cultural programme on Tagore at Science City in the evening to strike a chord with the Bengali sentiment. The event is organized by Khola Hawa, a socio-cultural forum headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta. Popular Tollywood actor Rituparna Sengupta, eminent danseuse Tanushree Shankar are the celebrities who are likely to be present there also.