KOLKATA: Amid high political drama and shifting loyalties in West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah began his two-day West Bengal visit today to push forward the BJP's agenda of a 200-seat victory in the Assembly election due in four months.

The Home Minister began his day offering prayers to Swami Vivekananda, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and Sarada Devi at the Ramakrishna Ashram in Kolkata around 10.30 in the morning.

"Vivekananda ji connected modernity and spirituality. He had said that if, for 50 years, everyone forgot their own gods and goddesses and prayed only to Bharat Mata, this nation would become aware. Exactly 50 years after that, India won independence," Mr Shah said at the Ashram.

A little after noon, he arrived in Medinipur by helicopter, accompanied by Bengal BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy, besides the BJP's West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya.

In Medinipur, around 150 kilometres from Kolkata, he offered prayers at the Siddheswari Kali Temple and later at the Devi Mahamaya temple.

He also paid floral tributes to freedom fighter Khudiram Bose and recalled his ultimate sacrifice. He said the country's youth may not always get a chance die for the nation like Bose, but they have a chance to live and follow the brave revolutionary's path. In this context, he also took an apparent dig at the ruling Trinamool Congress party.

"Those who do 'ochi rajneeti' (shallow politics), I remind them that Khudiram Bose was as much Bengal's as he was of the rest of India. Pandit Ramprasad Bismil belong as much to UP as to Bengal. The freedom fighters would not have imagined such 'ochi rajneeti'," Mr Shah said in Medinipur while speaking to the media.

His comments were likely aimed at Trinamool's attempts to paint the BJP as a party of "outsiders" which should not be given any space in West Bengal.

Earlier, Mr Shah arrived in Kolkata around 1.30am.

During the course of the day, Mr Shah is expected to welcome Suvendu Adhikari, the high profile former Trinamool leader, to the BJP. Mr Adhikari first resigned from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet on November 27 and then from the party on December 16. His associates have promised a "political storm more fierce than Cyclone Amphan" to sweep across Bengal today from Darjeeling to Digha".