Key Takeaways
- The BJP is targeting 35 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats for the 2024 elections.
- Nadda will meet leaders at the Science City auditorium and offer prayers at the Dakshineswar Kali temple.
- The visit underscores the party’s focus on addressing recent panchayat election violence and consolidating support in Bengal.
Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party national president Jagat Prasad Nadda arrived in the city on Friday night. He is scheduled to address the Panchayati Raj Sammelan of the party’s eastern regional leaders at Howrah on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may attend virtually, party sources said.
Nadda’s visit for the first time here after Bengal’s “bloody violent Panchayat elections” and months ahead country’s Lok Sabha polls assumed significance for the saffron brigade, which is targeting to win the lion’s share of the state’s 42 Parliament seats to consolidate Modi’s another return to power for third time in a row.
After his Howrah meeting, Nadda will visit the illustrious novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s house, also in Howrah and take part in the ” Amar Mati Amar Desh” there to pay homage to Bengal’s one of the top story tellers of the oppressed rural people.
In the afternoon the BJP chief would meet the victorious candidates in the panchayat elections, failed contestants as well as the victims of poll-related violence, at the Science City auditorium in the city.
Nadda is also scheduled to address a core group of the BJP state leadership at a hotel in New Town this evening.
On Sunday, Nadda would offer prayers at the Dakshineswar Kali temple, before meeting the party’s MPs, MLAs and zilla parishad members from Bengal.
Thereafter he would meet state BJP office-bearers and handlers of various cells and frontal organisations at Salt Lake in the city.
“These meetings with the state leadership are very important for drawing up strategy for the Lok Sabha polls next year, for which Amitji (Shah) has set a target of 35 seats (of 42 in Bengal) for us,” said a state unit insider.
Before coming to Bengal Nadda on August 8 last said he had received the report by the BJP Fact Finding Team, constituted to inquire into the “grave incidents of violence against the people and BJP karyakartas during the Panchayat Election in West Bengal”.
He urged the West Bengal government that it must take responsibility for the loss of innocent lives and work towards restoring order in the state.
“Our party stands with the people of West Bengal and will continue to raise their voice democratically,” Nadda said on his twitter post.
