Kolkata: When BJP chief Amit Shah sent Keralite Arvind Menon to West Bengal last year, his task was cut out -- to rein in Mamata Banerjee.
Then the BJP did not even have booth committees in most parts of Bengal.
Arvind Menon from Guruvayur got straight into work and first concentrated on strengthening the saffron party at the grass-root level. However, it was a task wrought with trouble and he was even assaulted by the Trinamool Congress workers.
"We will see the results of strengthening the party in this year's Lok Sabha polls," Arvind Menon told Manorama.
Arvind Menon, who was first an RSS worker before moving on to the BJP, quickly became one of the close acquaintances of Amit Shah. He had worked for the saffron party's victory in the 2014 polls in Bihar and the 2017 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Arvind Menon, a confidante of senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh, was given the responsibility of the party's Delhi office in 2017.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he travelled with Amit Shah to various states to assess the mood of the electorate.
A fluent speaker of the Bengali language, Menon was made the co-in-charge of the party in the eastern state.
From last August, he had been working in the north of Bengal and was able to bring together all the Sangh Parivar units.
The BJP flags fluttering in almost every nook and corner of Bengal stand testimony of Menon’s efforts.
"Mamata will be out of the picture by the 2021 assembly polls. She failed to capitalise on the opportunity given to her. She is a burden for the people of Bengal," Menon claimed.
Menon, who completed his post-graduate degree from the Banaras Hindu University, is also working on his PhD on senior citizens of the country. As it has been many years since he left Kerala, Menon says he is not in touch with his relatives.
