Amit Shah huddles BJP’s old guard & new faces in Kolkata

Kolkata: A day after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Home minister Amit Shah traded barbs, ramping up campaign rhetoric before next year’s high-voltage Bengal polls, Shah on Wednesday brought all the prominent BJP leaders of Bengal under one roof, including Dilip Ghosh, trying to project a unified front to voter base.

It is yet to be seen if Ghosh’s joining the meeting will strengthen the party organization in future, or will he actively participate in his party’s activities from now on. Incidentally, Shah held a high-level review meeting in the city on Wednesday aiming to make a bridge between the party’s old guard and its newer faces where he asked his party leaders to hit the streets.

Interestingly, Shah’s meeting saw the return of former state president Dilip Ghosh to the inner circle. Ghosh in recent time, skipped all the important meetings, including that of the Prime Minister. It was learnt that Shah held separate discussions with Ghosh alongside current state president Samik Bhattacharya, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and former state president Sukanta Majumdar.

The most significant takeaway from the closed-door session was the visible return of Ghosh to a meeting. But questions arise if Ghosh will now lend his strength to the party and work side-by-side with Adhikari and others. Ghosh on Wednesday’s meeting said: “I came to the meeting as I was invited. The party will speak on this.”

Political speculations were doing rounds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the state next month, but the biggest challenge, according to political analysts, lies with the state BJP is to overcome internal crisis and organizational weakness it has been grappling with for long.

Many say that the trouble-torn state BJP hopes to draw strength from the rallies of the heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah. It will never be easy for the saffron party to get two-thirds seats in 2026 assembly polls as Shah claimed on Tuesday.

This, especially at a time when apprehensions were floating among a section of Bengal BJP leaders that the implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) can backfire on the saffron camp. Discontent was brewing among sections of the Matua and Rajbanshi over the SIR process.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has, however, claimed that BJP would lose the status of being the Opposition party in the 2026 Assembly elections.

“The people of Bengal would give the BJP a befitting reply much “harsher” than 2021. After the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP-led Centre had stopped providing funds. Distributing money would not work for the BJP,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty asserted.