The BJP national president, J.P. Nadda, will visit Bengal on January 9 and 10, starting with a public rally in Birbhum, party sources have said.

A BJP leader said as Mamata’s December 29 Bolpur rally in Birbhum was a far bigger show than that of Shah on December 20, the saffron party decided to focus on the district.

Multiple BJP sources said the party’s central leadership wasn’t happy with the organisation in Birbhum. Hence, within a month of Union home minister Amit Shah’s roadshow in Birbhum, comes Nadda’s rally in the same district but its venue is yet to be decided.

The BJP plans to be aggressive in its rallies now, insiders said. “We will not stop with a single rally at one place. There will be multiple rallies in each constituency,” a BJP office-bearer said.

BJP sources also said that while Nadda would visit Birbhum, Shah might visit the Matua bastion of Thakurnagar in Bongaon, North 24-Parganas, on January 30.

If Shah visits Thakurnagur, it would be significant because the BJP has been facing unrest in the state’s Matua-dominated areas over the Centre’s delay in rolling out the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.

BJP’s Bongaon MP and the chief of the All India Matua Mahasangha Shantanu Thakur had voiced the community’s anguish over the delay in the implementation of the laws, and the party leadership had reached out to him in order to keep its Matua support base intact.

Following a meeting with senior party leaders, Thakur had said earlier this week that Shah might visit his constituency on January 19 or 20. However, BJP sources said that Shah’s visit might actually happen on January 30.