Bengal most poor; BJP will form govt next time: Amit Shah

BJP chief Amit Shah in Rajarhat on Thursday. Partha Paul

DESCRIBING BENGAL as the “most poverty-stricken state”, BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday said that BJP would form a government in West Bengal after next state elections. Shah on Thursday concluded his three-day tour of West Bengal by visiting the ancestral house of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee in Kolkata’s Bhawanipore area and holding a meeting with booth-level party workers at Rajarhat. “The atmosphere I have seen in last three days has made me confident that next time, BJP will form a government in West Bengal. It will be a government for the people, which will make sure that you do not have to move court to hold immersion of Durga idols. Once a BJP government is formed, Bangladeshi infiltrators will be stopped at the border and youth will get employment,” Shah told party workers at Rajarhat.

“In the last three days, I have interacted with the people of West Bengal. The kind of atrocities the state government has inflicted on the people of West Bengal has never been seen anywhere in the country after Independence. You can never see the kind of poverty, which is visible here, in any other state of the country,” Shah said. He added: “I assure you that once a BJP government is formed in West Bengal, the state will turn into a happy state like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana… The kind of response the BJP has received, I am confident that people would bring another change (poribortan) here.”

At the booth-level meeting at Sukantanagar in Rajarhat, he launched a ‘booth chalo abhijan’. He also met locals who offered him sweets and showered flower petals on him. Earlier in the day, Shah visited the ancestral house of Syama Prasad Mookerjee in Bhawanipore. Later, at a core committee meeting with state BJP leaders, he reportedly asked them to reach out to the masses and expand the party’s organisation.

A senior leader said that BJP will soon induct more people into the party. “Our focus will be to bring more people into the party and expand the organisation. We have been instructed to reach out to the masses and educate them about the development ushered in by BJP governments in other states,” he added.