Shah, Nadda set up BJP panel of 15 to win 35 WB seats in '24 LS polls

Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda constituted a 15-member election management committee on Tuesday to achieve their party's target to win 35 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal next year.

They landed in the city after Monday midnight with an agenda to assess their party's electoral strengths and weaknesses and preparations in the state under the TMC rule. On Tuesday morning, both of them went out for public outreach in the city.

They paid tribute at Gurudwara Bara Sikh Sangat at Jorasanko and Kalighat Temple near Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence. In the afternoon, they chaired an organizational meeting with the state BJP leaders at a hotel in New Town and set up the team.

Interestingly, none of the four union ministers of state– Nishit Pramanik (home affairs), John Barla (minority affairs), Shantanu Thakur (shipping) and Subhas Sarkar (education)– from Bengal got a berth in their party's poll panel.

In contrast, three BJP MLAs were included while two former state party presidents– Dillip Ghosh, now Midnapore MP, and Rahul Sinha– were also accommodated with the incumbent, Sukanta Majumdar, also an MP from Balurghat, in the team.

The 15-member election management panel includes five central BJP leaders– Sunil Bansal, Amit Malviya, Satish Dhand, Mangal Pandey and Asha Lakhra. 10 others are from the state.

They are the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Agnimitra Paul, Dipak Burman, Amitava Chakraborty, Locket Chatterjee, Jagannath Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato apart from Mr Majumdar, Mr Ghosh and Mr Sinha.

The TMC took potshots at the BJP's initiative. Its spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed, “They just made a plan about whom to blame here after their defeat in 2024. It is a committee of their capsizal. Forget 35 seats, let them get 3-5 at least. The more Mr Shah Mr Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit here, the more our vote bank will grow.”

The ruling party also hit the streets in North Kolkata and sought Mr Shah and Nadda to apologize for Mr Majumdar’s recent suggestion to recite the Bhagawad Gita rather than play football which it alleged were against Swami Vivekananda's philosophy.

In the evening Mr Shah told around 1500 BJP IT cell members at a meeting, “In 2024 the BJP will win more than 35 seats in West Bengal. The BJP will contest the election hinging on its social media strength because the regional media does not carry the message of the BJP fearing Didi.”

He added, “If you all social media warriors decide, you can have more reach than any channel or newspaper and no one can stop you from making Modi Ji win. That is the reason you have the biggest responsibilities.”