Kolkata, Feb 1 (IANS): Keeping in mind polls for the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will attend two rallies in two districts in West Bengal on February 12. Out of the two rallies, the first one will be at Suri in Birbhum district and the second one will be at Arambagh.
State BJP sources said that the Union Home Minister will be arriving in Kolkata on the night of February 11.
"He will be staying at a hotel in Kolkata that night. On February 12 morning, he will be first attending a meeting with senior state BJP leaders in Kolkata. From there, he will first go to Suri in Birbhum district and attend the first rally there at around 11.30 a.m. After that, he will attend the second rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district at around 2.30 p.m. He will fly back to New Delhi that evening only," said a member of the BJP's state committee in West Bengal.
Commenting on the reason of choosing Suri, he said that organisational structure of Trinamool Congress in Birbhum district has received a setback following the imprisonment of the party's district president there for his alleged connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam.
"At the same time, the internal feud within the ruling party is maximum in Birbhum currently. Our state leadership feels that this is the right time to take advantage of the dwindling organisational pattern of the ruling party in Birbhum and for that reason Suri had been the first choice as the rally venue," the state committee member said.
Arambagh was chosen as second venue because, the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls showed that BJP candidate there, Tapan Kumar Roy was defeated by Trinamool Congress' Aparupa Poddar by a paltry margin of just 1.142 votes.
"With a bigger push in the organisation activities of our party there, there is a high possibility of bagging that seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. So, we have deliberately chosen Arambagh as the venue of the second rally to be attended by the Union home minister," the state committee member said.