JP Nadda is looking to woo farmers amid the massive protest happening around Delhi.
Almost a month after his convoy came under attack, BJP chief JP Nadda was back in West Bengal today, keeping with his outfit's schedule for him in the poll-bound state. He is set to launch his party's day-long door-to-door rice collection programme aimed at meeting farmers amid the protest in Delhi over contentious agriculture laws.
The Ek Mutthi Chawal (a fistful of rice) programme aims to blunt the opposition's "anti-farmer" allegation against his party. Under this, he would collect rice from farmers' homes and brief them about the benefits of three new farm laws, against which thousands from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states have been protesting for more than a month now in and around Delhi.
Referring to the state government's recent approval of the Centre's scheme for farmers, he said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's regime was compelled to go for it feared the farmers fear. "But, let me say it clearly that it is already too late for the TMC government," Nadda said while launching the campaign.
Mr Nadda arrived at the Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport in West Bardhaman district at around noon and took a helicopter ride to Jagdanandpur village in East Bardhaman, where he was first scheduled do puja at a temple and then meet farmers.
On December 10, Nadda's vehicle came under attack during his journey to Diamond Harbour from Kolkata. Keeping that incident in view, elaborate security arrangements have been put in place across the district this time.
He will hold a roadshow from Clock Tower to Lord Curzon Gate in Burdwan and address a press conference, too.
His address at "Krishok Surokkha Gram Sabha" (farmers' security meeting at village) in Jagadanandpur will mark the beginning of 40,000 such meetings to be held by the BJP across West Bengal before the assembly elections. He will then have lunch at a farmer's residence and hold a gram sabha meeting during the day.
There are 71.23 lakh farmer families in West Bengal, 96 per cent of them small and marginal, according to PTI. East Burdwan, known as the "Rice Bowl of Bengal" has a significant farmers population and the BJP has made inroads in the area with the defection of Member of Parliament Sunil Mondal from the Trinamool to the BJP.
The BJP has launched an aggressive campaign in West Bengal in its bid to end Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's 10-year reign in the state.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly are due in April-May.