Trained forces of RSS needed for BJP's expansion in Bengal, feels Amit Shah.
On his third day of visit to Bengal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah reportedly met leaders of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Wednesday and sought their help in strengthening the party organisation in Bengal.
Sources said that Shah was not happy at the progress report in terms of formation of booth level committee. “He had found out that committees at not even 35,000 booths out of the 75,000 booths of the state had been formed. He had sought the help of trained forces of the RSS for BJP’s expansion. He said that both the BJP and the sangh were in equal footing as far as issues like Muslim appeasement in Bengal, communal tension and rise of fundamentalism was concerned,” said a source within RSS.
It was also found out that Shah discussed at length the problem of atrocities on Hindus in Bengal and he told RSS leaders how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee engineered hurdles to prevent delegates from the Centre to meet victims and their families in Bengal. “He said that there should be a better coordination between the RSS and BJP here. It will come handy in dealing with several issues. Say for example as Mamata had prohibited immersion of Durga idols on Dashami, the trained forces of sangh would connect with people and raise their awareness among them while BJP would look into the legal battle. The idea is to mobilise and marshal all the resources in the most effective manner,” the source said.
As Shah had done during his earlier visit, this time too, he visited a household from the lower middle class section of society for lunch but this time with a difference. Earlier he had been at two places – at Naxalbari in Siliguri and in Kolkata – but a day after family members of those households had been allegedly hijacked by the ruling TMC and made to join TMC ‘forcefully’. This time Shah visited the residence of Manas Sen, who is already a BJP member. Shah, along with other senior leaders of the state visited the household at Lock Gate Road in north Kolkata. There, Shah, along with state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, party general secretary and co-observer Kailash Vijayvargiya, joint general secretary Shiv Prakash and national secretary Rahul Sinha were given a warm welcome. The family served a pure vegetarian lunch to the team on earthen plates, bowls and glass. After lunch, they interacted with the family for sometime listening to their problems and took pictures with the BJP leaders. The team spent about an hour at the place. Sen works at a city mall.
His sister, Shampa Sil who had come over from her in-laws’ place to meet Shah and help her mother prepare lunch, said, “It was a great moment for us. He liked all the preparations and even asked for another helping of rice.”
Earlier TMC national secretary general, Dr Partha Chatterjee had taken a dig at Shah saying that people like him come over to Bengal to eat lunch with the poor and end the day with dinner at five star hotels. “These will not help. People of Bengal are with Mamata Banerjee and these occasional visits of BJP leaders will not be of any consequence,” Chatterjee said.
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