Amit Shah arrives to bolster activities of BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Kolkata, Jun 27  :  Aiming at a lion’s share of seats from West Bengal in the 2019 Parliamentary polls, national BJP president Amit Shah arrived the city here on Wednesday on a two-day tour of the state, buoyed by he party’s significant strides in the May rural polls in which the saffron brigade gained 24 per cent of the vote share.
Mr Shah drove straight to Port Trust Guest House from NSCBI airport.
He is accompanied by Union minister Babul Supriyo and Mukul Roy.
Mr Shah is expected to accompany the party president, who will spell out the new strategy to the party workers over the next two days.
The party’s state leadership headed by Dilip Ghosh is also likely to present a blue print to Mr Shah targeting 22 out of the total 42 Parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. BJP won two seats in 2014 from Darjeeling and Asansol.
The Darjeeling seat was won with support from then Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has split and majority under Binay Tamang, who has backing from the Mamata Banerjee government.
Mr Shah has a packed programme for today and tomorrow during his stay.
According to his itinerary, Mr Shah will participate in several party programmes and hold deliberations regarding  the BJP’s political strategy in the state. He has been a vocal critic of the Mamata Banerjee-led government and  during his last visit he said the state was home for the bomb making industry.
The BJP has also been campaigning across the country on the violence in Bengal, which was witnessed during the rural polls in May.
On June 27, Mr Shah is expected to mark the 180th birth anniversary of novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee with an interaction with Bengal intellectuals at the programmes to mark the occasion in the city. He will hold a meeting with members of the party’s IT cell, where he will discuss ways and means of using social media to counter TMC, and give tips to the party’s social media army in Kolkata. He will also talk to the RSS leadership.
The timing of Mr Shah’s visit coincides with the RSS claim that online applications to join the cadre-based organisation increased five-fold since June 7 when former president Pranab Mukherjee delivered the concluding speech at its headquarters in Nagour.
Some 40 per cent of these applications were from West Bengal, claimed RSS Prachar Pramukh (spokesperson), South Bengal, Biplab Roy.
“On June 6, online applications received were 378. On June 7, it rose to 1,779. Thereafter, on an average we are getting around 1,200-1,300 applications daily. About 40 per cent of these applications are from Bengal,” claimed Mr Roy.
Before departing for Purulia, Mr Shah will visit Tarapith in Birbhum district, which is one of the 51 Shakti Peeth. He will then hold a meeting with party workers in the district.
In Purulia, he will meet booth level workers of the party before addressing a rally. Mr Shah is expected to meet three bereaved families of party workers murdered in the post-poll period.
The BJP picked up Purulia as one of the itineraries for Mr Shah where the party fared well in the rural polls. BJP performed well in all tribal dominated areas of Jangalmahal, Purulia, Bankura and Alipurduar in north Bengal.
UNI.