Union Home Minister Amit Shah and former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday directed BJP public representatives to intensify grassroots outreach by spending at least four days a week in their constituencies and holding at least five street-corner meetings daily, as the party gears up for the upcoming state elections.
Setting clear performance benchmarks, Shah, during a closed-door meeting with party MPs, MLAs, civic body councillors, and organisational portfolio holders, asked them to "prove their worth" to be eligible for a party ticket to contest the high-stakes assembly elections, scheduled to be held in the next four months, according to a party leader present at the gathering.
Calling for cohesion within the party, Shah sought to project a unified front while indicating that former state president Dilip Ghosh would be one of the main faces of the saffron camp in the elections.
Ghosh, who has largely stayed away from the forefront of the BJP's activities in the state over the past several months, was also invited for the meeting, signalling his renewed importance.
Shah, considered the BJP's chief poll strategist, also listened to the party's 2024 Lok Sabha poll candidates about the advantages and difficulties they faced during their campaigns, and the factors contributing to their wins and losses, the leader said.
Shah advised them to share their understandings of the assembly seats under their respective parliamentary constituencies during the run-up to next year's polls, the leader said. The meeting was held to take stock of the BJP West Bengal unit's preparedness.
The Union Home Minister reportedly also held a separate meeting with Ghosh, alongside former state president Sukanta Majumdar, incumbent Samik Bhattacharya, and the state's leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, indicating bridging of gaps between the party's old guns and the newer ones.
"I can't say much, but you will see an active Dilip Ghosh in the 2026 polls. I was called to listen to my experiences and opinions," Ghosh told reporters while leaving the venue.
"Everyone in the party is energised. We will win the 2026 polls and bring about true change in this state," Adhikari told reporters ahead of the meeting.
Besides the state leaders, the meeting was also attended by the party's central observers for Bengal--Sunil Bansal, Bhupender Yadav, Biplab Deb, and Amit Malviya.
About inviting Dilip Ghosh, who was perceived to have been pushed to the party's "back bench" after visuals of him meeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the inauguration of the Jagannath Temple complex in Digha earlier this year were splashed across TV screens, the leader said the so-called "cooling off" period must now be over for him and he is likely to play a crucial role for the party in the months ahead.
Ghosh is considered to be the most successful state president of the BJP under whose leadership the party rose from three seats in the state assembly to over 70 and snatched 18 parliamentary constituencies in 2019.
BJP MP Khagen Murmu, while leaving the meeting of MPs and MLAs, told reporters, "I am ready to put up a determined fight against the misrule of TMC and be on the side of the people. I told him that despite being beaten up by TMC goons during my visit to the flood-affected Nagrakata area in Alipurduar district recently, I am not afraid and am ready to face assault. People of north Bengal and the rest of the state are with us." Another senior BJP Leader, an MLA, said Shah stressed on "intensive grassroots mobilisation through booth-level workers, and deployment of 'vistaraks' (grassroot workers) across all constituencies".
According to him, Shah underscored the importance and role of booth-level workers to strengthen the BJP's organisational base in Bengal.
"Shah will be camping in Kolkata for a few days at a stretch every month in the run-up to the polls in 2026," the leader said.
Shah invoked stalwarts like Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Rabindranath Tagore, promising to "revive Bengal's heritage and culture" in the right spirit after forming the government, he said.
On Tuesday, Shah set the tone for the high-stakes assembly polls and launched a broadside against Mamata Banerjee, accusing her government of "dangerously altering" the state's demography by abetting the infiltration of Bangladeshis for electoral gains and indulging in widespread corruption.
Setting the BJP's 2026 poll narrative, he also declared that the issue of infiltration would take centre stage in the party's campaign.
Following the party representatives' meeting, Shah addressed a party workers' conference at a city auditorium and visited the Thantania Kali Temple in central Kolkata before departing for Delhi.