Amit Shah likely to pay two-day visit to Bengal by month-end

Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to pay a two-day visit to West Bengal by the month-end in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha polls this year.

He is likely to be in the state on January 28 and 29. According to a member of the BJP’s state committee, Shah is expected to arrive in Kolkata on January 28 and on the same day he might hold an organizational meeting in the city with state party leaders.

“The minister, in the meeting, is expected to take stock of the party's preparations in the state for the Lok Sabha polls,” the committee member said.

On January 29, Shah might address a party rally at Mecheda in East Midnapore district, which is the native district of the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said the member.

State BJP sources said that the two Lok Sabha seats in East Midnapore district, Kanthi and Tamluk, from where the sitting MPs are the Leader of the Opposition's father Sisir Kumar Adhikari and his brother Dibyendu Adhikari, are under special focus of the BJP for the general elections.

Although both are officially Trinamool Congress, they are unlikely be renominated by the state’s ruling party this time for obvious reasons. Political observers feel that the probable rally of Amit Shah in East Midnapore district is proof of how seriously the saffron leadership is taking its prospects for the two Lok Sabha constituencies in the district. Last time, when the Union home minister visited West Bengal, he had set a target for 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Since then several national leaders have been regularly visiting West Bengal and conducting political programmes here.