Modi, Shah to raise BJP’s poll pitch in election-bound Bengal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah will be raising poll pitch in election-bound West Bengal over the next five days.

Shah will be landing in Kolkata on Wednesday; he is scheduled to flag off the BJP’s fifth and final parivartan rath yatra from Namkhana in South 24 Parganas on Thursday.

Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 4km extension of the city’s north-south Metro corridor from Noapara to Dakshineshwar on February 22. He is also expected to hold a public rally in Hooghly—his second public rally in the poll-bound state.

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Around the same time when Shah will launch the rath yatra, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee and party MP Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew, will jointly address a rally in the same district.

A BJP leader associated with the planning of the fifth rath yatra said that the final rath yatra will be a direct challenge to the chief minister and her nephew.

“The fifth rath yatra, will pass through two prestigious constituencies—Diamond Harbour and South Kolkata. While the former is the constituency of Abhishek Banerjee, South Kolkata is the home turf of the chief minister. Mamata Banerjee is the MLA of Bhawanipur assembly constituency in South Kolkata,” the BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

Plans are afoot to take the rally through Sirakol in Diamond Harbour, the spot where the convoy of BJP national president JP Nadda was attacked on December 10, 2020.

According to BJP leaders the rath yatra will initially take off as a small one from the Kapil Muni ashram in Sagar Island, where Shah is scheduled to visit. Millions of pilgrims congregate at Ganga Sagar every year in mid-January to take a holy dip at the confluence of River Ganges and the Bay of Bengal at the southern tip of West Bengal during the Ganga Sagar mela.

“The rath yatra will begin on a boat, will reach the mainland and then continue on road from Namkhana. Shah will flag off the rath yatra from Namkhana,” said the BJP leader.

Meanwhile the inauguration plaque for the Metro extension mentions that Modi will be flagging off the Metro on the new stretch in the presence of Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and railways minister Piyush Goyal.

However, HT could not confirm whether the chief minister will attend the programme.

On January 23, the 124th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had refused to speak at an official programme attended by Modi after “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised by the audience.

Mamata Banerjee will, however, be holding a rally in Hooghly district on February 24 to counter Modi’s rally.