Amit Shah after visiting the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda in Kolkata on Monday. Partha Paul
BJP national president Amit Shah started his three-day visit to Kolkata on Monday by visiting the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda, on the 125th anniversary of his Chicago address. Accompanied by central and state party leaders, he paid a floral tribute to the statue of Vivekananda. “Fortunate to have visited the birthplace, ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda in Kolkata on the occasion of 125th anniversary of his Chicago speech. Swami Vivekananda ji is a youth icon, an ideologue whose teachings continue to inspire generations after generations,” Shah later tweeted.
The BJP chief also held a series of meeting with state and district-level party workers at the ICCR auditorium. In the afternoon, he met district presidents, general secretaries and state committee members. This was followed by a meeting with district observers and state office-bearers. In the evening, he met Loksabha Palaks and members of the party’s state morchas and cells.
“Amit Shahji told us that instead of complaining of attack against our party workers by TMC, we should put up a counter resistance through a mass movement against their (TMC) misrule. Our party president is well aware of the present political situation in Bengal,” state BJP president Dilip Ghosh told reporters after a four-hour-long closed door meet here, according to a PTI report.
“The BJP has the largest number of MPs in both houses of Parliament. But the party is yet to reach the peak. The sky is the limit,” said a state party functionary quoting Shah, according to the PTI report.
According to a senior state BJP leader, Shah directed them to strengthen the organisation in the state and reach out to the grassroots ahead of next year’s Panchayat polls. “He asked us to strengthen our booth-level committees. He also expressed concern about the way BJP workers are being beaten up by Trinamool Congress workers and asked us to report every such incident,” said the leader. The party unit submitted to Shah a list of names of BJP workers who were “killed” in the state.
Another BJP leader said, “Shah gave the example of the party’s performance in Uttar Pradesh to rejuvenate party workers in Bengal. He said that BJP’s organisation strength was poor in Uttar Pradesh. However, it managed to turn its fortunes in that state. He said that there was no way that such a performance cannot be repeated in Bengal. He also asked us not to cry over problems and work towards the party’s growth.”
On Tuesday, Shah is scheduled to interact with party workers who were allegedly attacked by TMC members. Later in the day, he is slated to interact with city-based intellectuals. On Wednesday, he will meet representatives of business chambers.
