Eastern Zonal Council meeting: Home Minister Amit Shah to chair EZC meet in Kolkata

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the Eastern Zonal Council meeting at the West Bengal secretariat here on Saturday, officials said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her counterparts from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to attend the EZC meeting.

Sources in the secretariat, however, said that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik would skip the meeting.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will attend the meeting on behalf of Kumar, while Odisha minister Pradeep Amat will represent the state in the absence of Patnaik, the sources said.

Among other issues, Shah is slated to hold discussions on matters related to boundaries of the five states and the completion of the eastern freight corridor.

Along with the CMs, chiefs of all central armed forces are also expected to attend the meeting, which was earlier scheduled for November 5, but got postponed due to Shah's unavailability, owing to other engagements.

Security has been beefed up around the state secretariat and the BJP office in the city, a police officer said.

Shah, who is also a senior BJP leader, had on Friday evening held a closed-door meeting here with members of the party's Bengal unit, where he took stock of the law and order situation in the state.

He reviewed the saffron camp's preparations for the upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal as well, BJP leaders said.

"We have apprised the home minister of the current law and order situation in West Bengal. He has also been told about the party's preparations for the panchayat polls. He urged party workers to reach out to as many voters as possible," BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh told reporters.

The party's state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition in assembly Suvendu Adhikari were also present at the meeting that lasted for around 30 minutes.