Union minister of state and BJP’s Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur on Monday evening reached the office of Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal in Calcutta, only to discover that he was supposed to be present at the Election Commission’s headquarters in Delhi.

A source said he immediately called a senior BJP leader and then realised that he had somehow misunderstood the location where he was to be at with a BJP delegation.

A group of senior BJP leaders, including the party’s state president Samik Bhattacharya and IT head and Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya, went to the EC’s Delhi office on Monday to raise certain concerns and submit recommendations related to the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls
in Bengal.

In the memorandum, Thakur’s name was printed as one of the signatories.

“However, the leaders in Delhi had to submit the letter without Shantanu Thakur’s signature. There was no other option, as he was busy trying to locate his party colleagues at the CEO’s office in Calcutta,” said a BJP leader.

“Although it was the result of miscommunication, Thakur’s presence in the EC headquarters was crucial, as he is a Matua leader and could have raised vital issues concerning the community regarding the SIR,” the
leader added.

Thakur, a descendant of the renowned Thakurbari, a religious destination for the Matua community, had recently claimed the Matuas need not worry because even if someone’s name is deleted as a part of the SIR, it would be reinstated through the CAA.

A BJP leader admitted that Monday’s faux pas was a serious one, as it exposed a lack of coordination among senior party leaders.

Thakur did not take calls or respond to text messages from this newspaper.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee took a potshot at the BJP over Thakur’s Calcutta-Delhi confusion. “It is ridiculous that a minister reached the Calcutta CEO office instead of the Delhi EC headquarters. It reflects a lack of coordination among BJP leaders,” he said.