BJP gears up to storm Mamata's backyard

Hoping to attract beyond the usual “pro-Hindutva” crowd, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sending out invitations to Sourav Ganguly and a host of other sports personalities for the scheduled rally of Narendra Modi in Kolkata on February 5.

While the prevalent feeling among the party’s state leadership is that the name of Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, is enough to draw a large crowd to the rally, leaders want to ensure that with the presence of such secular figures, even non-BJP supporters will be drawn to the event.

Sources said the party does not want to take any risks in West Bengal, which is one of its important areas this time. Although there are hardly any chances of winning a seat in the state, the BJP leadership wants to ensure that in case of a political vacuum, they are there. Despite Bengal not being one of BJP’s bastions, leaders want all efforts taken.

Sources said state BJP president Rahul Sinha, who addressed a conference of the party’s sports cell in Bengal on Tuesday, advised members to approach sportsmen, coaches and sports administrators, like Ganguly, cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, football legends Subash Bhowmik, Subrata Dutta and Manoranjan Bhattacharya. Invites have already been printed and are ready to be dispatched.

Interestingly, the BJP national leadership had recently approached former Indian cricket skipper Ganguly with the offer of a ticket and the berth of a sports minister if Modi becomes the prime minister.