Union home minister Amit Shah has set his eyes on winning Bengal, and the challenges to meet the target are so huge that he has to toil for 16-18 hours every day.
Starting his day at 8.30am, the No 2 in the Narendra Modi government is attending three to four public meetings and road shows and drawing up strategies for different constituencies, followed by a slew of meetings that end at 4am.
Shah has decided to camp in Calcutta for eight days on the trot from April 20. “He (Shah) is attending four rallies a day, including road shows. After dusk, he holds back-to-back internal meetings to resolve issues, gather inputs from leaders, draw up fresh strategies and fix gaps,” said a senior BJP leader.
“He has not been having heavy meals at night and is spending hours with leaders and senior BJP functionaries, surviving largely on black coffee,” he added.
A BJP source has said Shah’s typical hectic day begins at 9am. He then boards the private helicopter to fly to various places to address rallies before returning to Calcutta in the evening.
On Tuesday, Shah addressed his first rally at Sukna, which is in the Kurseong Assembly constituency. After addressing the public meeting, he boarded his chopper and flew nearly 470km to Kulti in West Burdwan for another meeting. The Kulti rally was followed by two more — one at Salboni in West Midnapore and another at Chandipur in East Midnapore.
The completion of the four rallies did not mark the end of his day, as a major round of meetings awaited him at a New Town hotel, where he had been camping.
According to a source, Shah holds a series of meetings in the evening, and the exercise continues till 4am before going to bed.
On Wednesday, the Union home minister wrapped up his schedule around 4am with an organisational meeting with in-charges of the second phase of the polls in Calcutta.
“He has made it clear that he will follow a similar schedule for the next six days till April 27,” said a BJP national leader.
On April 2, Shah had announced that he would stay in Bengal for 15 days to interact with BJP leaders and workers.
Before April 20, he had spent seven days in Bengal in three trips during his campaign.
However, many BJP leaders had no idea that Shah would camp in Calcutta for eight continuous days and work 16–18 hours daily, holding meetings with party functionaries.
What has he been doing at those meetings?
Sources said Shah had been meeting various community leaders, taking inputs from them and guiding BJP workers on strategies. Around midnight on Tuesday, Shah held a meeting with constituency in-charges and state BJP leaders to resolve issues.
Early Wednesday morning, he conducted a marathon meeting with leaders from 13 organisational districts in Calcutta.
This time, he has been focusing especially on booths. Shah has taken reports on the BJP’s strength at the booth level and intensified efforts to ensure that no party worker left the booth until the voting was over.
“This time, the BJP has categorised constituencies into three groups — high chance, medium chance and low chance — apart from those where victory is considered certain. Amit ji has been setting up separate strategies for each category,” said a BJP leader.
BJP leaders said that although Shah had been heading elections in Bengal since 2021, he had never camped in Calcutta for eight consecutive days. “It shows how tough the election is in Bengal,” said a leader.
On Friday, Shah said it was his 14th day of campaign in the state after the polls were announced.
The Trinamool Congress has, however, claimed Shah’s intense schedule proves not only that Bengal is a tough battleground for him but also that the BJP lacks strong local leadership.
“He is staying in Bengal because he knows none of his party’s Bengal leaders or those brought in from outside is capable of handling the election. So he has taken the entire responsibility on his shoulders to at least save the BJP’s face. However, a hired player cannot be an asset to any team, and his sleepless efforts show that Mamata Banerjee will return to power with a sweeping victory,” said Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty.