Prepare for battle against TMC misrule: Amit Shah tells West Bengal BJP unit

BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday discussed with state leadership the strategy to win "maximum number" of Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal in 2019 and exhorted the leaders to reach out to the masses to prepare for an all out battle against the alleged misrule of the TMC, a party leader said.

Shah, on a two-day visit to West Bengal, held a series of closed door meeting with state party leadership and social media cell here.

"He (Shah) has asked us to prepare for an all out fight so that we can win maximum number of seats. He had earlier given us the target of 22 seats. But now he has told us to fight hard for all the 42 states in the state," a senior leader of the BJP's state unit, who attended the meeting said.

"Our party president has asked us to fan out in the districts to prepare for an all out battle against the misrule of the TMC," the BJP leader said.

A total of 15 party leaders have been asked to cover 37 organisational districts in the state and each of them has been asked to stay there for a fortnight, he added.
"He (Shah) has asked us to prepare a list of issues for the Lok Sabha polls," the BJP leader said.

Shah also directed the state unit leaders to hold rallies to apprise the people in every block of the state of the Modi government's development programmes, he said.

The BJP chief is scheduled to address a rally in Purulia district on Thursday, where the saffron party made significant gains in last month's rural polls over the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

During another closed door meeting of the party's Social Media Convention, Shah asked party workers to use social media as a tool to combat against the TMC government in the state and propagate about the pro-people policies of the Modi government, the BJP leader said.

"Shah has asked us reach out booth level both physically and social media cell. In order to reach out to the masses in villages he has asked us to use the medium of Bengali to access social media," he said.

The BJP president also pointed out the need to use online platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter to fight against the rumour mongering by opposition parties, the BJP leader added.

Shah on Wednesday also addressed the first memorial lecture on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who had composed the national song, Vande Mataram.

He criticised those who tried to communalise "Vande Mataram" and held the Congress responsible for the country's partition.

Shah alleged that the Congress had surrendered before the politics of appeasement.
The ruling Trinamool Congress leadership while reacting to Shah's visit said BJP is "day dreaming" of winning 22 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal.

"The BJP is day dreaming of winning 22 seats in the state. They will loose the two Lok Sabha seats - Asansol and Darjeeling - this time. They should stop day dreaming. The people of Bengal have rejected the BJP," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.

The West Bengal state Congress unit today staged a protest rally few meters away from the venue of Shah's seminar on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay at G D Birla Sabhaghar in South Kolkata.