A high-level meeting between the RSS and BJP’s top functionaries in West Bengal is being held in Kolkata today amid speculation that the RSS is going to take over the control of the party in the state.
The meeting is chaired by Arun Kumar, the organisation’s eastern zone chief and attended by top RSS leaders from Nagpur along with BJP office-bearers, who were, in the past, RSS leaders.
The meeting’s invitation letters were sent to BJP leaders having an RSS background, and state party president Sukanta Majumdar and national vice president Dilip Ghosh have chosen the attendees.
The biggest absentee in the meeting was Suvendu Adhikari, who was not invited.
A source in the RSS said, “The meeting is all about the state functionaries. Adhikari is the member of the parliamentary committee of the party.”
However, Adhikari had a one-to-one meeting with Kumar at his guest house in Kolkata.
What is significant is that the meeting is going to be held in Keshav Bhavan, the RSS’s headquarters in the east.
“This meeting is to determine the issues in West Bengal that will be important next year. It is a significant meeting,” said a senior BJP leader.
Sunil Bansal, party’s state-in-charge, and party’s co-incharges Amit Malviya and Mangal Pandey, too, have come down to Kolkata to attend the meeting.
The meeting has been organised at the behest of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Though, officially, the state BJP has refused to reveal the agenda of the meeting but there are speculations that 2023 will bring major challenges for Mamata Banerjee and her government.
Amid calls for bifurcation of the state, the meeting is gaining significance. Surprisingly, the RSS has divided its state units into three—northern, central and western – with headquarters in Burdwan.
Amit Shah in Kolkata
Meanwhile, Amit Shah’s office has confirmed he would attend the Eastern Zonal Security and Development meet at state secretariat in Nabanna, Howrah. The proposed meeting was supposed to be held last month but owing to Shah's busy schedule, the meeting was postponed to December 16. The meeting would be attended by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.
State government officials denied the possibility of Shah holding one-on-one meeting with Banerjee.