In a run-up to the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal, Union health minister JP Nadda will attend two crucial meetings ~ one administrative and the other political today.
Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the party president will arrive in Kolkata on Wednesday night and is scheduled to attend and address a health-related seminar in the city.
Later in the day, he will chair a crucial closed-door organisational meeting of the BJP’s West Bengal leadership, a state committee member confirmed. He is expected to return to New Delhi on Thursday evening after the meeting.
According to the state committee member, BJP’s West Bengal president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya had specifically invited Nadda to preside over the organisational meeting and address party leaders, an invitation that was accepted.
During the closed-door meeting, Nadda is likely to share his assessment and guidance on the party’s poll strategy for the Assembly elections scheduled later this year.
Nadda’s visit comes close on the heels of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s three-day tour of Kolkata last month and ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed two-day visit to the state later this month, during which he is expected to address two rallies in separate districts.
Political observers see the sequence of high-profile visits as a clear indication of the BJP central leadership’s focus on election preparedness in the state.
During his recent visit, Shah had issued a series of strategic directives to the state BJP leadership regarding campaign planning. A key focus was on countering Trinamul Congress’s alleged propaganda aimed at instilling fear among voters of the Matua community over a possible loss of voting rights due to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The home minister had instructed state leaders to intensify outreach programmes among Matua voters, assuring them that their voting rights would be protected and addressing concerns arising from the SIR exercise.
In addition to the Matua issue, Shah also directed the state leadership to firmly counter claims by the CPI-M-led Left Front and sections of the Congress in West Bengal alleging a covert understanding between the BJP’s top leadership and the ruling Trinamul Congress, the state committee member added.