Six Union ministers, MPs to lead BJP’s outreach plan in West Bengal

On Wednesday, a core team of the party from the state unit met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi to draw up the plan for the outreach with an eye on the electoral battle for 294 seat assembly that is scheduled for May 2021

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning a massive outreach headed by at least six union ministers and MPs to counter the misgivings about the recently passed farm bills in West Bengal where the party is gearing for a bitter contest against the ruling Trinamool Congress.

On Wednesday, a core team of the party from the state unit met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi to draw up the plan for the outreach with an eye on the electoral battle for 294 seat assembly that is scheduled for May 2021.

The state team will also move the high court in West Bengal to seek a CBI probe into the alleged killings of its political workers.

As per a functionary privy to the details, the core team, which included state unit president Dilip Ghosh; has asked the central team to spare Union ministers Smriti Irani, Piyush Goel, N S Tomar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju and Prahlad Patel to counter the TMC’s campaign against the farm bills passed in Parliament.

TMC MPs in the Rajya Sabha had objected to the bills not being sent to a select committee for further scrutiny and were part of the group that created a ruckus in the House. TMC’s Derek O’Obrien and Dola Sen were among the eight who were suspended subsequently for the remainder of the session that ended on Wednesday.

These ministers have been specifically chosen because of their familiarity with the region and the language and they will be fielded to counter the narrative on the ground such as the outcry over the recently passed farm bills.

“The opposition has been trying to mislead the masses that the farm bills passed in Parliament are anti-farmer and will lead to their lands being usurped. We will counter this through rallies, which will be held virtually as well as a few on the ground where the norms of social distancing will be followed,” said the person quoted above.

Pamphlets in Bengali will also be distributed to reach out to a maximum number of people across the state.

“The meeting was essential to discuss organisational issues. We will counter the chief minister’s campaign to deliberately distort bills passed by Parliament,” said union minister and MP from the state Babul Supriyo.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargia, Arvind Menon, in-charge of departments and projects, and Mukul Roy.

The issue of political killings was discussed in depth, said a second functionary aware of the details. “The police have been trying to cover up the deaths as suicides or accidents, so we will push for a CBI probe,” the second person aware of the details said.