Bengal polls: Nadda to visit North Bengal on Oct 19 to review preparedness

BJP national president J P Nadda

will visit Siliguri in North Bengal on October 19 and take stock of organisational aspects ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, party sources said on Wednesday.

According to state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's scheduled visit to North Bengal stands cancelled for the time being.

"Our party president J P Nadda Ji will be visiting Siliguri on October 19 and hold organisational meetings there," Ghosh told reporters here.

Nadda, along with senior party leaders such as national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, vice- president Mukul Roy and Ghosh, will interact with booth and district-level heads, the sources said.

The region accounts for a total of 54 assembly seats with about 300 booths each covering eight districts.

The saffron party has made deep inroads in North Bengal, once considered to be a bastion of Congress and Trinamool Congress, bagging seven out of the eight Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

After decades of its limited presence in the politically-polarised state, the BJP has emerged as the main rival to the ruling TMC, winning 18 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections.