West Bengal BJP top brass to meet Amit Shah on October 1

Amid murmurs of discontent in Bengal BJP unit, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a meeting with the top brass of the state unit on Thursday and discuss various organisational aspects, party sources said.

The organisational restructuring of BJPs central unit sparked off discontent in the Bengal unit as senior leader Rahul Sinha, who was dropped as the national secretary, expressed his anger over being left out.

Sinha too has been asked to present at the meeting.

"Tomorrow we have an organisational meeting with Amit Shah Ji. Senior leaders who are part of the state core committee will be present. We will discuss various aspects of the organisation," BJP West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said on Wednesday. Sinha, when contacted said he has reached Delhi as he has been asked to attend the meeting.

Hinting at newly appointed office-bearers Mukul Roy and Anupam Hazra, who are turncoats from the ruling Trinamool Congress, the two-term former state president had claimed that he has been dropped to pave the way for TMC leaders who have joined the saffron party.

"For the last 40 years I have been associated with BJP. Today I have been rewarded by the party, which decided to drop me to pave the way for leaders who have joined from the TMC," Sinha had said in a video message on Saturday.

"I will wait for 10-12 days before announcing my next line of action," he had said.

Asked whether he would bring up the issue with the party top brass during his visit to Delhi, Sinha said "I have been asked to attend the meeting, so I have come. I don't want to say anything more".

Meanwhile, some BJP cadres who support Sinha blocked his car outside the airport and demanded that he should not meet the party leaders who had "insulted" him.

"Party workers who love me got emotional and wanted me not to visit Delhi. But I convinced them that we are all loyal soldiers of the party and I must visit Delhi as the party leaders have asked me to do so," Sinha said.

According to BJP sources, party national general secretary and Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya along with co-observer Arvind Mennon has been trying to pacify Sinha.

Announcing a new team of the party's national office bearers on Saturday, the BJP had named Mukul Roy as a vice-president, and Anupam Hazra, a former TMC MP who had joined the saffron party in March 2019, as a secretary.

Roy, once considered the number two in the TMC next to its supremo Mamata Banerjee, had switched over to the BJP in 2017 following differences with her.

Darjeeling MP Raju Bista had been appointed a national spokesperson of the party in the new team of national office bearers.