Eye on 2021, Amit Shah to Lead BJP from Front in Mamata’s Bastion, Plans Frequent Bengal Visits

He said, “It is too early to comment on this. There are media reports that he will start spending more time (at least three days) from April to mobilise the party workers.” Majumdar added, “It could be after the municipal poll results in Bengal. For us, 2021 assembly polls will be crucial and we are hopeful that under the guidance of Amit Shah ji, we will be able to form the next government in Bengal.”

Talking about the plan, a senior party leader said: “The defeat in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi has already started giving a wrong impression. We found ourselves on the back foot with the citizenship issue and the riots in Delhi. So, we desperately want to change this image and Bengal is very crucial for us.” He added that the central leadership has taken Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee’s statement seriously where she had said the BJP has become a “stateless party” and she will be the one “to drive the last nail into their coffin”.

Shah will try to cover majority of assembly constituencies during his Bengal visits with a series of public meetings and door-to-door campaigns.“During the upcoming Durga Puja, we will have major mass mobilisation drives across the state. You can call it the final push before leading the BJP towards victory. This will boost the morale of the party workers at the booth level,” Majumdar said.

In the 2016 assembly polls, TMC retained its majority in the legislative assembly by winning 211 seats out of 294. The BJP won only three. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha, BJP rattled the TMC camp by winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. However, in the last few months, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has aggressively managed to regain its lost ground in tribal-dominated areas in Jangalmahal and surrounding areas.