An elaborate plan has been chalked out in the saffron camp in the national Capital before Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP’s national president, JP Nadda come on “reconnaissance tour” to the West Bengal in the coming weeks.

The managers of the twin tours to gear up the party rank and file for the coming state Assembly elections are careful lest these leaders put their foot in the mouth and provide ammunition to Trinamul Congress leadership to fire broadside at their strongest political opponent.

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Considered to be a significant tactical move, the plan aims to soften up the morale of the political opponents of the saffron camp, namely Trinamul Congress and Left-Congress combine and encourage defections as the state Assembly election inches closer, it was learnt from party sources.

The visits will be the first of a series of stopovers in the state as part of the state Assembly election campaign. With more visits to the state on the agenda, plans have been chalked out to soften up potential Trinamul defectors.

Decision will be taken on the game plan to catch the political opponents on the back foot and marking out the areas to be zeroed in on during the campaign blitz, it was learnt.

Against the backdrop of the Trinamul seeking to label the BJP with an outsider tag, campaign managers of the saffron camp are scrutinising the style and substance of the address of their leaders to be delivered during the election rallies in Bengal.

The party’s links with the state will be stressed, with a particular emphasis on the Jan Sangh founder, Syama Prasad Mookherjee who happened to be the youngest vice-chancellor of Calcutta University.

The Trinamul leadership has gone hammer and tongs at the gaffes of some of the BJP leaders which exposed their ignorance about the history and culture of the state. Steps are being taken to avoid such mistakes which would alienate the people from the saffron camp’s vote seekers, it was learnt.

At the same time, the BJP leadership is loath not to invoke the messages of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhaya, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and his most famous disciple, Swami Vivekananda and of course the state’s biggest cul tural icon, Rabindranath Tagore.

Obviously the saffron leaders will not mouth the pluralistic thoughts of these great men but will harp on other issues these splendid minds spoke and wrote about, zeroing in on their pan-India character to rub out the outsider label.

The BJP leadership will not be shy about roping in film stars to pitch their cause during the campaign, which would be a sure-shot way to ensure a big turnout even if a top draw speaker is not addressing a rally.