Eye on 2016, BJP books stall for mouthpiece at Kolkata Book Fair

THE West Bengal unit of the BJP has booked a stall for its mouthpiece ‘Bharatiya Janvarta’ at the ongoing Kolkata International Book Fair to popularise its ideology. Senior BJP leader Tathagata Ray, who inaugurated the stall Wednesday, said with just over a year remaining for Assembly elections in the state, the party intends to increase both the circulation and frequency of the fortnightly publication.

“It is not the BJP’s stall but of the newspaper, which follows the same ideology. You can call it the mouthpiece of the party. The BJP is a bigger party now compared to what it was five years ago,” Ray said.

Stating that the periodicity of the newspaper would be increased, Ray said earlier the Bharatiya Janvarta was circulated only among the party members but “it will now hit the stands and put up on walls for public reading, just like mouthpieces of other parties”. The newspaper, at present, has a circulation of just over 10,000 copies and party intends to make it one lakh. Janvarta’s editor Bimal Ray said with the BJP growing at an unprecedented rate and aiming to form a government in state in 2016, talks were on with the party leadership to pump in funds to expand the newspaper.