Amit Shah seeks presence at Bengal yatra

The call comes at a time attendance at the party’s rath yatras — an unfamiliar feature in the state — has flagged after the initial enthusiasm

Union home minister Amit Shah rides a Toto in Naraynpur village in South 24-Parganas on Thursday:Telegraph picture

Arkamoy Datta Majumdar   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   19.02.21: Union home minister Amit Shah has issued an appeal to BJP supporters to be “united in their presence” along the route of the “paribartan yatra” that he flagged off from Namkhana in South 24-Parganas on Thursday.

The call comes at a time attendance at the party’s rath yatras — an unfamiliar feature in Bengal — has flagged after the initial enthusiasm.

Shah was in Namkhana to launch the last of the five paribartan raths — decorated air-conditioned vehicles. “Mothers, brothers and sisters, this yatra starts today…. I urge you all to be united in your presence while the yatra passes through the villages and the cities. Stand in support of the yatra,” Shah told a public meeting on Indira Maidan in Namkhana before flagging off the chariot.

The party’s poll strategists had planned five rath yatras, one from each of its organisational zones, to cover all the 294 constituencies to help facilitate a mood for change.

While two of these, including the one that began on Thursday, were inaugurated by Shah, three others were flagged off by J.P. Nadda, the party’s national president.

The rath launched by Nadda on February 9 from Tarapith was received by a mere 200 people at Rampurhat after travelling almost 90km through the district. Sources in Birbhum BJP said the party had initially planned to invite Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to participate in the rally on February 13. However, the plan was abandoned purportedly because of the poor response.

“It isn’t possible for the poor party workers to be present at the rally every day. They’ve told us that it affects their work,” a source in Birbhum BJP said.

Not just poor turnout along the routes of the rath yatras, the flag-off sessions have also failed to create the excitement that matched the expectations of BJP leaders, sources said.

The turnout was less than expected on Indira Maidan on Thursday. Empty patches of the field reminded party leaders of the lukewarm response the flag-offs received at Tarapith, Nabadwip and Lalgarh.

Although Shah paid his respects to the crowd for turning up in “large numbers”, images from the Maidan did not entirely reflect such a rosy picture.

State BJP vice-president Raju Banerjee said over 50,000 people had gathered on the Indira Maidan but another leader claimed in private that the count did not exceed 25,000.

The more or less lukewarm response prompted a senior BJP leader, who is also an office bearer in the state committee, to wonder whether the state government castled the party by allowing the rallies.

“Before the 2019 polls, our rath yatras were denied the permission. There was a lot of fuss about it and we gained political mileage out of it,” the leader said. “But now that we can take our rallies out, the interest among the people is subsiding after the inauguration.”

However, BJP MP and state general secretary Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato denied that the yatras had failed to draw crowds. He said the turnout had surpassed expectations.