Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today reached out to the people at Chalsa in Jalpaiguri by celebrating Bengali New Year and Bangla Diwas with them. Hundreds of folk artistes especially Adivasi boys and girls and local artistes took part in a colourful programme there. Miss Banerjee joined hands with the folk artistes, performed with them and played some musical instruments amidst tight security. State power minister Aroop Biswas accompanied Miss Banerjee. The chief minister will start her third round of campaigning from Cooch Behar tomorrow.

In Siliguri, under the leadership of Siliguri Mayor Goutam Deb, local artistes took out a colourful procession to mark the Bengali New Year as well as Bangla Diwas in the morning. On the other hand, candidates for Lok Sabha polls belonging to Trinamul Congress , Bharatiya Janata Party and others reached out to the people and marked the day with the people in this region today. While TMC candidate for Darjeeling LS seat Gopal Lama offered prayer in a Kali temple in Siliguri and started campaigning here, BJP candidate Raju Bista was busy in Darjeeling Hills today to garner votes.

Notably, Mr Bista has organised a ‘Meet and Greet’ and interactive sessions with outgoing Union Minister for Youth and Sports Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur in Siliguri tomorrow morning. On the other hand, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Chief Executive Anit Thapa took the opportunity to criticise the BJP as sections of the Hill people were upset as there was no special commitment for Darjeeling in the BJP’s election manifesto. The BJP candidate for Jalpaiguri, Jayanta Roy, started campaigning at Rajganj areas in the morning and left for Maynaguri where movie star Mithun Chakraborty came to join a roadshow for Mr Roy.

“West Bengal needs a change,” Mr Chakraborty told reporters here today. While TMC candidate Prakash Baraik and BJP candidate Manoj Tigga were busy in campaigning, taking on each other in Alipurduar, the Trinamul Congress leader and former North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh joined hands with local BJP leaders to mark the Bengali New Year in Cooch Behar today. The police were on the alert to maintain law and order and recovered nearly Rs 9 lakh from a car belonging to a BJP leader in Jalpaiguri today