Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday visited the Visva Bharati University in Bolpur here and paid homage to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore at Rabindra Bhavan in the campus.
After his tribute to Tagore, Shah visited the Upasana Griha (prayer house) and Sangeet Bhavan, where students of the university rendered Rabindra Sangeet in a cultural programme. The BJP leader was also greeted with performance by Baul singers.
Shah, who is on a two-day visit to West Bengal, paid floral tributes to Gurudev Tagore at Rabindra Bhavan on the university campus, reported PTI.
Amid tight security, the home minister arrived at Bolpur in Birbhum district for more than an hour-and-a-half-long visit to the central university.
The Gandhinagar MP is also scheduled to hold a meeting with vice- chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and members of the faculty.
Shah, the de facto second-most powerful BJP leader in the country, was welcomed in Bolpur by Bengal BJP leaders Rahul Sinha, Locket Chattapadhyay and Raju Banerjee, among others.
Following his Visva Bharati campus tour, the Home Minister will travel to Shyambati, where he will have lunch with a family of Baul singer.
He will culminate his Bolpur visit with a mega rally from Hanuman Mandir on Station Road to Bolpur Circe and a press conference at Mohor Kutir.
On his first day of the Bengal tour, Shah welcomed ex-TMC behemoth Suvendu Adhikari and several others to the BJP. He said that senior party members are leaving Trinamool Congress because of corruption and growing discontent among the common people.
“Didi accuses BJP of inducing party members to defect. But I want to ask her when she quit Congress to form TMC, was it not defection?” he said adding that the BJP would form the next government in Bengal with more than 200 seats in the 294-member Assembly.
Bringing an end to the long-running speculations looming over his political career, Adhikari on Saturday switched loyalty. He was introduced to BJP to a thunderous applaud from the huge crowd present at Shah’s rally at Midnapore collegiate ground.