In Mamata Banerjee's home turf of Bhawanipur, Amit Shah throws down the gauntlet

Seeking to expand his party base in West Bengal, BJP president Amit Shah today visited a slum in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's home turf in her Bhawanipur assembly constituency and garnered a warm welcome for himself.

While being greeted by the residents of some houses in the slum, Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "vijay rath" would roll into Bengal in 2019. The BJP president got a warm welcome with some residents blowing conch shells and doing 'aarti' to greet him while the others showered flower petals on him as he visited a house negotiating a narrow lane. Some residents said they offered him 'rasogolla' and sugar-less lassi as Shah enquired about their well-being and the problems faced by them.

Some residents regretted that they could not meet him due to a surging crowd. Before visiting the 'Lockgate Basti,' Shah interacted with the booth-level workers of his party in the Bhawanipur constituency and urged them to visit the people at the grassroot level to expand the party's base "Remember, you are a member of the world's biggest political party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy is to take everybody along. There should not be any injustice to anyone. It is sabka sath, sabka vikash," he told them.

The BJP president alleged that the TMC was practising the "appeasement and vote bank politics" and has unleashed the violence against rival political workers. But, he asserted, whatever be the scale of violence, lotus would bloom here.