Amit Shah in Kolkata holds late-night meeting with state BJP leaders

Union home minister Amit Shah arrived in Kolkata late on Friday night and went straight from the airport to a hotel in New Town.

Although no official programme was scheduled for the day, Shah held discussions with senior leaders of the West Bengal BJP and central observers, party sources said.

Advertisement

Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar were present at the meeting.

Several senior state leaders and central observers responsible for West Bengal also met Shah at the hotel.

Among those present were party’s West Bengal in-charge Sunil Bansal, Mangala Pandey, Bhupender Yadav, Biplab Deb and Amit Malviya.

While no participant commented on the details of the discussions, BJP sources said the meeting focused on election preparedness, the prevailing political situation in the state and the organisational status of the party in West Bengal.

Sources added that Shah also reviewed the progress of tasks assigned to state leaders during his previous visit to West Bengal about a month ago.

Shah visited Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas on Saturday morning, where he addressed a workers’ meeting at Anandapuri Maidan.

BJP workers from the organisational districts of Bongaon, Basirhat, Barasat and Barrackpore attended the programme.

Later in the day, Shah left from Kolkata airport for Bagdogra. In the afternoon, he addressed another workers’ meeting at the Air Force ground, with BJP workers from Siliguri, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar organisational districts expected to participate. Shah is scheduled to depart for Delhi from Bagdogra around 4.30 pm.