Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrives in Bengal on 2-day visit

Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in West Bengal on Friday night on a two-day visit ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Shah reached Kolkata airport at around 9:45 pm from Assam and was greeted by senior state leaders like Suvendu Adhikari, state unit president Samik Bhattacharya and union minister Sukanta Majumdar. Shah, who was originally scheduled to come at 8:10 pm from Guwahati, had to attend a crucial late evening BJP meeting in Assam before boarding the flight for Kolkata, causing the one-hour delay, party sources said. He is scheduled to hold a closed-door core committee meeting on Friday night with senior leaders to discuss the party's strategy ahead of the assembly polls, the sources said. He will then stay overnight at a hotel in New Town area near the city. ''Shah will first address a workers' meeting at Barrackpore on Saturday, and then fly to North Bengal, where he is scheduled to attend a programme of the Airports Authority of India,'' a state BJP source said. There is also a possibility of a party workers' meeting at Siliguri too, although nothing has been finalised as of now. This is Shah's second visit to the state within a month. He had earlier been in Kolkata on December 30 and 31 last year for a series of organisational and public engagements. The assembly election to the West Bengal assembly is due in a few months.