Bengal will shine under BJP, says Amit Shah

"Our workers will visit every household and connect with voters. The lotus will bloom in Bengal," said BJP national president Amit Shah on Wednesday.

Talking to newsmen at the Press Club, he said the Bengal unit was working to strengthen the party base. "It is with this aim that I went to Naxalbari on Tuesday and spoke to the party workers. The response is overwhelming. After the party's success in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa our next target is Bengal." He said that the state government's appeasement policy had not been liked by the people.

"It is unfortunate that people have to take permission from High Court to organise Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja processions are not allowed," he said adding "the condition of Bengal has gone further down than the CPI(M) regime in the past five years." Shah alleged the state government had failed to stem corruption, infiltration and circulation of fake currency notes. "Mamata Banerjee had held meetings against note ban in different parts of the country but its primary aim was to stop circulation of fake currency notes and she has miserably failed to stop it in Bengal."

Shah added that the BJP would do better in 2019 Lok Sabha polls as people in the state want development. "BJP believes in all-round development and Bengal will get back its old glorious days under BJP." Shah met party workers of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's constituency in Bhowanipore and urged them to go to every "person and tell them about BJP's programmes." He also visited a slum at Lockgate area and spoke to its dwellers. Manishankar Mukherjee along with Ramanath Roy and Rantideb Sengupta were present at the meeting organised by the state BJP at Mahajati Sadan on Wednesday evening.

The BJP bagged four leaders from Trinamool Congress. Two TMC leaders, Anupam Dutta and Ranjan Sen, who had been expelled from the party along with Kanak Debnath and Manoj Pandey joined the saffron party. Debnath and Pandey had joined Trinamool from the Congress few months back.