Polling booth No. 93, Naxalbari

Amit Shah's visit to Naxalbari was meant to send a message to party workers

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership on Monday roped in Textiles Minister Smriti Irani to announce the forthcoming tour itinerary of party chief Amit Shah. Irani said Shah would spend the next 15 days in West Bengal, Odisha, Lakshadweep, Gujarat and Telangana. He will be spending three days in each state and reach out to polling booth-level workers. He will begin his tour from polling booth number 93 in Naxalbari, a village in Siliguri in the northern part of West Bengal, from Tuesday. Naxalbari was the hub of the Naxalite-Maoist struggle of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and has been chosen as symbolic of BJP putting up a fight against Leftist ideology. Irani said the party chief’s visit to Naxalbari was meant to send a message to party workers that they should counter the alleged atrocities on them by cadres of Left parties, and that the party stands by them. However, most found the choice of Irani to address the briefing curious. Irani maintained that while she does speak Bengali, Amethi in Uttar Pradesh remains her Lok Sabha constituency. In 2014, Irani had contested against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, and had also campaigned there during the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.