Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday outlined an action plan for the BJP’s West Bengal unit while reviewing its preparedness for the assembly polls due early next year.
Addressing the party’s public representatives, both past and present, Shah sought to project a unified front, while indicating former state president Dilip Ghosh as one of the main faces of the saffron camp for the elections.
Ghosh, who has largely stayed away from the forefront of the BJP’s activities in the state over the past several months, was also invited to the closed-door meeting attended by the party’s MPs, MLAs, civic body councillors and organisational portfolio holders.
Shah held the meeting to take stock of the BJP West Bengal unit’s preparedness for the Assembly polls next year, a State leader said.
The Union Home Minister reportedly held a separate meeting with Ghosh, alongside another former State president, Sukanta Majumdar, incumbent Samik Bhattacharya, and the State’s leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, indicating bridging of gaps between the party’s old guns and the newer ones.
“I can’t say much, but you will see an active Dilip Ghosh in the 2026 polls. I was called to listen to my experiences and opinions,” Ghosh told reporters while leaving the venue.
According to a leader who attended the meeting, Shah instructed the public representatives to spend “at least four days a week in their constituencies and attend at least five street corner meetings daily” to strengthen their public outreach.
The leaders must prove their worth to the party in the next two months to gain eligibility for tickets for the upcoming state elections, the leader said.
Shah, considered the BJP’s chief poll strategist, also listened to the party’s 2024 Lok Sabha poll candidates about the advantages and difficulties they faced during their campaigns, and the factors contributing to their wins and losses, he said.
The Union Home Minister advised them to share their understandings of the assembly seats under their respective parliamentary constituencies during the run-up to next year’s polls, the leader said.
About inviting Dilip Ghosh, who was perceived to have been pushed to the party’s “back bench” after visuals of him meeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the inauguration of the Jagannath Temple complex in Digha earlier this year were splashed across TV screens, the leader said the so-called “cooling off” period must now be over for him and he is likely to play a crucial role for the party in the months ahead.
Ghosh, considered to be the most successful State president of the BJP under whose leadership the party rose from three seats in the State assembly to over 70 and snatched 18 parliamentary constituencies in 2019, is also perceived to have a “firebrand” presence, whose aggressive campaign style the party plans to use during its electioneering process.
“Everyone in the party is energised. We will win the 2026 polls and bring about true change in this State,” Mr. Adhikari told reporters before walking into the meeting.
BJP MP Khagen Murmu, while leaving the meeting of MPs, MLAs, told reporters, “I am ready to put up a determined fight against the misrule of TMC and be on the side of the people. I told him that despite being beaten up by TMC goons during my visit to the flood-affected Nagrakata area in Alipurduar district recently, I am not afraid and am ready to face assault. People of north Bengal and the rest of the State are with us.” Another senior BJP Leader, an MLA, said Shah stressed on “intensive grassroots mobilisation through booth-level workers, and deployment of ‘vistaraks’ (grassroot workers) across all constituencies”.
According to him, Mr. Shah underscored the importance and role of booth-level workers to strengthen the BJP’s organisational base in Bengal.
“Shah will be camping in Kolkata for a few days at a stretch every month in the run-up to the polls in 2026,” the leader said.
Shah invoked stalwarts like Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Rabindranath Tagore, promising to “revive Bengal’s heritage and culture” in the right spirit after forming the government, he said.
On Tuesday (December 30), Shah set the tone for the high-stakes Assembly polls and launched a broadside against Mamata Banerjee, accusing her government of “dangerously altering” the State’s demography by abetting the infiltration of Bangladeshis for electoral gains and indulging in widespread corruption.
Setting the stage for the BJP’s 2026 poll narrative, he also declared that the issue of infiltration would take centre stage in the party’s campaign.
Following the party representatives’ meeting, Shah addressed a party workers’ conference at a city auditorium and visited the Thanthania Kali Temple in central Kolkata before departing for Delhi.
TMC leader and State Education Minister Bratya Basu had predicted that the BJP “would not even cross the 50-mark in the Assembly polls and suffer a humiliating defeat”.
He called Shah a “political tourist” whose visits “will serve no purpose”.
TMC’s official response highlighted the BJP’s previous prediction failures.
“In 2021, Shah’s ‘Pakka 200 paar’ (definitely crossing 200) yielded 77 seats; in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a 30-seat prediction resulted in 12,” it said.
