BJP chief Nitin Nabin set to tour Durgapur, Asansol on first Bengal visit
Kolkata (PTI): With the assembly polls on the horizon, BJP national president Nitin Nabin will make his first visit to West Bengal on Tuesday after assuming charge, with a two-day tour of the industrial belt of Durgapur and Asansol.
Nabin is scheduled to arrive at Andal airport in the evening and will remain in the West Burdwan district through Wednesday.
BJP sources said his itinerary is entirely centred on organisational meetings and cadre mobilisation, underlining the party’s renewed focus on strengthening its grassroots machinery ahead of the polls.
The absence of Kolkata from Nabin’s maiden Bengal tour has triggered political speculation, with party insiders insisting that the choice of Durgapur-Asansol is strategic rather than symbolic.
Initially, there were indications that he might be in Kolkata en route to Burdwan.
However, the final intinerary excludes any engagement in the state capital, with the BJP chief confining his interactions to the south-western part, commonly known as the ‘Rarh Banga’ region, which the party considers electorally critical.
Political observers feel the BJP is recalibrating its Bengal strategy after mixed electoral fortunes in recent years, particularly in the south-western belt comprising East and West Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia and Birbhum, a zone that once formed the backbone of the party’s expansion in the state.
“This region remains central to our revival plans. If the party has to improve its tally in the assembly, ‘Rarh Banga’ is unavoidable,” a senior BJP leader said.
This belt has delivered some of the BJP’s strongest performances during the 2019 general elections, when the party won five of the eight parliamentary seats in the region, contributing to its best-ever showing in West Bengal with 18 Lok Sabha seats.
The momentum failed to fully translate into the 2021 assembly elections, with the BJP managing to win only 18 of the 57 seats in the ‘Rarh Banga’ region.
The slide became sharper in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when the party retained just two of the eight seats it had earlier won.
Durgapur and Asansol, in particular, are seen as crucial because of its significant non-Bengali voter base, a demographic the BJP believes remains receptive but insufficiently consolidated in recent elections.
While the party lost the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat in 2024, BJP leaders maintain that the organisation remains electorally competitive in pockets such as the Durgapur West Assembly constituency, where it had emerged victorious in 2021, and led in the segment during the last parliamentary election.
“Nitin Nabin’s visit is about consolidating existing support rather than firefighting,” a BJP functionary said, adding that the leadership wants to “rebuild confidence among workers” after successive electoral setbacks.
According to the schedule, the BJP chief will land at Andal around 4 pm on Tuesday. He is slated to attend the Kamal Mela at the Chitralaya Mela Ground in Durgapur in the evening, followed by a closed-door organisational meeting at a city hotel.
On Wednesday, the BJP president will offer prayers at the Biringi Kali Temple before chairing an organisational meeting at the Chitralaya grounds.
Later in the day, he will travel to Raniganj in Asansol to address another organisational meeting, before returning to Andal to board his return flight.
Party leaders said the meetings will focus on poll preparedness, booth-level strengthening and coordination among district units, with special emphasis on regions where the BJP’s vote share has remained intact despite recent losses.
For the BJP, Nabin’s first Bengal visit as national president signals a shift towards region-specific political targeting, as the party attempts to reclaim lost ground and reassert itself in a state where its electoral graph has plateaued since 2021, according to the observers.
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Unruly scenes witnessed in Punjab Assembly
Chandigarh (PTI): The Punjab Assembly on Friday witnessed high drama on Friday after Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira made an allegedly objectionable remark against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann during an intense argument over the alleged use of mobile phone in the house by the legislator.
During the one-day special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha here, Mann accused Khaira of using a mobile phone when Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan was reading out an official resolution on the revision of wages.
After rising from his seat, the chief minister pointed to the speaker, claiming that Khaira is busy on his mobile phone and urged him to ask the Congress MLA what Sandhwan had said about the resolution.
The speaker then asked Khaira to maintain order in the house and listen to the resolution carefully.
Mann then asked Khaira, "Why don't you go out and then use it (mobile phone)," which led to a strong verbal altercation during which the opposition MLA hurled an accusation against the chief minister. Meanwhile, the speaker appealed for order and insisted that the chair be addressed.
However, both Mann and Khaira continued arguing and could be seen pointing fingers at each other as the proceedings of the house were disrupted.
The AAP MLAs also rose from their seats with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema condemning Khaira for his conduct and demanded action against him.
Cheema further alleged that Khaira "always tries to disturb the house" as he spoke about his conduct in the assembly.
The incident occurred as an official resolution on the revision of wages was presented at the special session by Labour Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond who said it paid homage to labourers on the International Workers' Day.
"Workers are the axis of construction of the nation, the community, the state and society. Every construction project succeeds only through their blood and sweat," the resolution read.
As per the resolution, "The base rate of minimum wages for the working class in Punjab was last revised in the year 2012. Although the dearness allowance has continued to increase since 2012, there has been no increase in the base rate of minimum wages.
On this sacred occasion of May Day, in this special session of the legislative assembly, this house proposes to revise and increase the minimum wages of labourers and strongly recommends to the government to take a decision regarding the increase of minimum wages for workers, so that the contributions of the workers can be acknowledged." PRK
