Don’t bother about CM candidate for next Assembly election: Amit Shah to West Bengal BJP

Shah instructed all BJP Morchas to organise regular programs in all the 294 Assembly constituencies in Bengal to boost BJP’s presence

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday told West Bengal BJP leaders that there was no need to bother about who would be the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the 2021 Assembly elections indicating that BJP would contest the elections without projecting anyone as the Chief Ministerial candidate. State BJP sources said that Shah made the remark at an organisational meeting at Salt Lake.

Speaking to journalists later in the day Shah said BJP’s Parliamentary Board and the national president would decide whether to project anyone as Chief Minister in the 2021 Assembly elections.

“As far as projecting anyone as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the West Bengal Assembly elections, the Parliamentary Board of the party and the national president will take a call on it. We have won a lot of elections without projecting anyone as Chief Ministerial candidate for instance in Uttar Pradesh,” said Shah.

Read: West Bengal's lost glory needs to be restored: Amit Shah hits out at Mamata over 'appeasement politics'

He also said that BJP would come to power in Bengal in the 2021 Assembly election by winning 200 seats and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule would end in the state.

Accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of failing on every front, Shah said her only aim was to make her nephew - Abhishek Banerjee - the next Chief Minister of West Bengal in the next Assembly elections.

“Didi (as Mamata Banerjee is often called) has set up a record of bad administration marked by the politicisation of administration, criminalisation of politics and institutionalisation of corruption,” said Shah.

He further alleged that appeasement politics by the Chief Minister had reached such a level that there were three separate laws in the state. “One for the (her) nephew, one for her vote bank and one for the people,”’ said Shah.

Alleging that Bengal occupied the top slot in the country in terms of political murders, Shah asked would the Chief Minister bring out a white paper on the issue. He further alleged that infiltration was taking place in the state unabated.

As for the possibility of President’s rule in Bengal, Shah said the Centre takes such decisions based on the Governor’s reports adding that there would be no need for such a step as the government would change in Bengal after the next Assembly elections.