The BJP has set a target to win at least 50 per cent of the total lok Sabha seats in Bengal. Party president Amit Shah on Wednesday set the target for his Bengal colleagues saying nothing less than 22 seats would be acceptable to the national leadership.
Shah who arrived in Kolkata on a two-day State visit told an extended core committee meeting of partymen that the workers at the grassroots level should be encouraged to win at least half of the total seats.
“The task may not be easy but the workers will have to make it possible. It is possible to win 22 seats in Bengal,” insiders quoting Shah said, adding the BJP chief made it clear that no excuses would be taken for failures.
“There is neither any room for any complacency, nor for excuses. We will have to work hard and take a giant leap. There has to be an all-out effort to win all the 42 seats. Only then we will be able to win 22 seats,” the BJP president reportedly told party leaders.
However, reacting sharply to Shah’s “target”, Trinamool General Secretary Partho Chatterjee said Shah’s “tonic will not work in Bengal as the BJP will have to take on Mamata Banerjee who is a mass leader, loved by one and all for her hard work and performance.”
The BJP had earlier tried to employ large bands of Central force but failed to capture Bengal, Chatterjee said insisting “this time also they will fail to win even as single seat, let alone 22 seats.”
The BJP president also alerted party men about “concocted” stories of a “setting between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress,” circulated by Opposition parties like the left and the Congress.
“The workers need not be confused by the propaganda made by the left and the Congress about a setting between the Trinamool and the BJP. They should instead concentrate fully on their responsibilities,” Shah said.
The Congress and the left had gone to town questioning Mamata Banerjee’s Federal Front campaign without the Congress as a major player. They feel that Banerjee’s Federal Front drive will only divide the anti-BJP votes and in the long run help the saffron outfit.
Centre has been soft pedaling the chit fund and Narada investigations because there was a “setting between the two parties” as a part of which Banerjee will promote Federal Front and divide anti-BJP votes in lieu of CBI going soft on scam related case against the Trinamool Congress leadership, the left says.
“The grassroots workers must be asked to concentrate on their work and ignore the concocted stories of a ‘setting’ between the two parties,” sources quoting the BJP chief said.