'Moong dal, potol fry and squash curry': Amit Shah has typical Bengali meal at tribal's house in Naxalbari

BJP president Amit Shah had lunch at the house of a tribal in Darjeeling district. Shah sat on the floor of Raju Mahali's house at Dakkhin Katiajote village in Naxalbari area and had rice, moong dal, 'potol' fry, squash curry, salad and 'papad', served on a banana leaf. Addressing a rally, he said: I want you to shout so loudly that it can be heard in Kolkata. This is where violence started. I am happy to see the Lotus bloom here.”  

BJP West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh accompanied Shah. The BJP president is on a three-day tour of West Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress-ruled state is among the five states, including Odisha and Telangana, where he will spend three-day each as he looks to strengthen the party in the states where it has been traditionally weak, with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Besides Shah, top party leaders, including almost every union minister, have been roped in to drive the campaign at booth-level to boost the organisation's prospects. Kerala and Tamil Nadu, two states where it has always been a marginal force, are two other important states in this campaign, she said.

In the birth centenary year of its ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, the BJP had asked its volunteers to work full-time for the party while its government at the Centre launched several schemes, declaring it to be 'garib kalyan varsh' (year of poor's welfare).

Over 3.68 lakh workers will work for the party across the country for 15 days and over 4,000 for anywhere between six months and a year, she said.