Bharatiya Janata Party, it is learnt, would go into a massive overreach programme in West Bengal from Tuesday, organising no less than 2,000 small potho sabhas (street-corner meetings) in over 40 assembly constituencies in and around Kolkata in coming days.
It would be massive as various state and national leaders of the party would seek out locals in housing societies and community centres, presenting their vision of Kolkata’s past and how it could look in future, besides general dialogue with masses on present-day Bengal.
In order to ensure that it’s convenient to people, the meeting would be held only in evening.
Union home minister Amit Shah would start off this humongous overreach by addressing potho sabhas in Dum Dum (7 p.m) and Baranagar (8.15 p.m) on Tuesday.
This potho sabhas are in addition to existing programs, rallies and road shows which remain unaltered and on schedule as laid out in party’s vision for the remaining four phases of the Bengal assembly elections.
Kolkata has suffered from neglect in all these decades of independent India. A city which has been at the heart of India’s advancement in literature, music, spirituality and cinema, right from the age of Bengali Renaissance, and which has had to its credit social reforms (abolition of Sati Pratha) to legalised widow remarriage which empowered women to formation of Indian National Army (INA), now has its back broken by systematic indifference of its successive governments. Infrastructure has crumbled, healthcare facilities are negligible, industries don’t exist, and its economy is in shambles, not to say women who are increasingly insecure in toxic air of muscle power.
