Shah to visit Bengal on Nov 5 & 6 as politics heats up

New Delhi: In what could send the political temperature soaring in West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has decided to visit the state for two days on November 5 and 6.

The all-important Assembly elections in the eastern state is scheduled for next year.

The Home Minister's decision came just days after Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar met Shah in Delhi over the "state of affairs" in Bengal.

When asked by reporters about the correlation, BJP's West Bengal general secretary Sayantan Basu rubbished any 'political conspiracy' angle.

Basu said, "He is the Union Home Minister. Every day he receives complaints that our cadres are being killed in Bengal. It may be so that he wants to find out first hand and wants to gauge the situation of West Bengal. There is no conspiracy. Many feel that he is coming to gauge the ground reality."

"Out of the five zones, the meeting of one zone is over. But the remaining four zones will hold meetings when Shah is here," said BJP state President Dilip Ghosh.

While the first meeting will be in Bankura on November 5, the second meeting will be in Kolkata on November 6, he added. Both the meetings will be attended by Shah.

On Saturday, Ghosh held a meeting about Shah's visit next month. BJP's National Secretary Arvind Menon was also present in the meeting.

At Shah's organisational meetings during his stay, he is likely be joined by top BJP leadership of the state, district leadership of the concerned zones apart from Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arvind Menon from the central party leadership.

It will be the first time that Shah will attend a meeting in Bengal after Mukul Roy was promoted to team JP Nadda.

Electoral strategy at the booth levels will be the focus of the meetings, said sources.

The BJP wants to snatch power in Bengal next year when the state goes to the polls. Last year in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP surprised many by winning as many as 18 seats.

The Bengal BJP unit is also keen to get a nod on how aggressively it can push the CAA and NRC narrative, both of which have a lot of takers in Bengal, particularly among the BJP's core voter base.