Nadda on two-day visit to Bengal, first since extension as BJP president

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) J P Nadda will arrive in Kolkata on Wednesday night for a two-day visit to West Bengal, the first since his extension as the BJP president.

Nadda's term was extended till June next year during the party's national executive meeting on Tuesday.

During his visit, he will hold organisational and public meetings in Nadia district on Thursday.

He is scheduled to arrive in Kolkata at 10.40 pm.

"On Thursday, he will first visit the ISKCON temple at Mayapur in Nadia district and offer puja. He will then address a public meeting at Bethuadahari, after which he will hold an organisational meeting with leaders of Nadia North organisational district and assess the party's performance in the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat," BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay said.

He will leave the state on Thursday evening.

The BJP lost the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat to the Trinamool Congress in the 2019 elections.

Nadda's programme is a part of the central leadership's 'Pravas' campaign to strengthen its organisation in 144 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country that the party had lost by a slender margin in the 2019 elections.

Over the next few months, Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address 12 rallies each, covering 24 Lok Sabha seats in the state that the party had lost in the previous elections.

The BJP has won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 polls.

Nadda's visit coincides with the ongoing five-day West Bengal visit of RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat.

Bhagwat's visit ahead of the panchayat polls in the state due this year holds significance as the BJP is pulling out all the stops to perform well in the rural elections. The RSS is considered the ideological mentor of the saffron party.

Incidentally, the BJP's state executive committee meeting will be held from January 20 to 21.

The Trinamool Congress, however, declined to attach much importance to Nadda's visit.

"We have seen how the BJP's central leaders had camped in West Bengal before the 2021 assembly polls. But the party had to face defeat. Nadda's visit will not yield any result for the BJP," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

Nadda's visit to West Bengal comes at a time when the party is looking to tone up its organisational machinery ahead of the panchayat elections.

The party has seen internal squabbles and defections since the 2021 assembly poll results.

Former Union minister Babul Supriyo, party MP Arjun Singh and five legislators, including national vice president Mukul Roy, have switched over to the TMC since the 2021 assembly polls.

The TMC steamrolled to power for the third consecutive term, winning 215 assembly seats, while the BJP, massively improving its tally, bagged 77 seats. PTI PNT ACD ACD ACD