PM Modi talks to West Bengal BJP MPs as party eyes big state

New Delhi: From discussing with BJP MPs in West Bengal about the political situation in the state to seeking feedback on what the party needs to do, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is walking the extra mile to shape the saffron campaign for the next year's assembly polls there.

Modi has held one-on-one meeting with most of the BJP MPs from the TMC-ruled state during the ongoing Budget Session in which he also sought feedback on popular views about his government's schemes, an unambiguous signal about the massive importance he attaches to the assembly polls due in the state in April-May in 2021.

A marginal player in the state till the party stunned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress by bagging 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, the BJP hopes to capture power on the back of Hindu consolidation over her government's alleged pro-minority bias and lack of development.

"Modi ji has decided to meet every MP. He asks them about a number of political and development issues. It boosts their morale and energises them for the political battle ahead," BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.

Locket Chatterjee, who along with Ghosh is the most vocal party member of parliament from the state in Lok Sabha, said Modi enquired about what needed to be done to win the assembly polls and what is the popular view about the central government and its schemes.

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls, the TMC had won 211 seats in the 295-member assembly, followed by 26 of the Left-Congress alliance and merely three of the BJP. The assembly also has one Anglo-Indian member. The BJP's vote share was barely above 10 per cent against over 45 per cent of the TMC.