Modi meets Bengal MPs, gets ready for poll battle
New Delhi: After BJP’s recent reverses in the Assembly polls in Jhakhand and Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started taking feedback from party MPs in West Bengal, where Assembly polls are due next year, and is likely to take charge of the state poll campaign.
Modi has met several members of Parliament from West Bengal in the last few days during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament and has sought their opinion.
Sources say the Prime Minister has asked for a report from all the 18 Lok Sabha MPs on the implementation of Central government schemes and the performance of the Mamata Banerjee government.
Dilip Ghosh, MP from Medinipur and also state BJP chief, met Prime Minister Modi in Parliament on Wednesday. The same day Modi also met Jalpaiguri MP Jayanta Roy and Purulia MP Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato.
The Prime Minister also met Hooghly MP Locket Chaterjee, Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan on Thursday. Modi is planning to hold more such meetings in the coming days.
An MP who recently met the Prime Minister told IANS, “The PM discussed implementation of Central government schemes and whether these are reaching the intended persons. He also wanted to know about the issues people in West Bengal would like to be raised.”
After a string of defeats in the Assembly elections, the BJP wants to take no chances in West Bengal where assembly polls are shceduled to be held next year and before that, there are local body polls this year.
The BJP has made deep inroads into Bengal, winning 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the last year’s general election. The BJP’s next target is the Assembly elections for which top leadership of the party has been making rounds of the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah who recently visited the state has said that he will spend at least three days in the state every month.