Once again, Union home minister Amit Shah is coming to West Bengal to address political rallies.
According to BJP sources, he might hold a joint rally in north Bengal tomorrow. It was earlier announced that he would visit the state for campaigning on Sunday, but due to bad weather, his helicopter couldn’t take off. Consequently, Shah had to return without holding the rally in Darjeeling. According to BJP sources, Shah is planning to campaign in Bengal during his visit on Tuesday. He is expected to hold two rallies in Raiganj and Malda South.
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It’s common for central ministers from the BJP to visit Bengal for election campaigning. Even before the announcement of election results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the state for three days. He had also visited the state before the announcement of elections. From Anurag Thakur to Rajnath Singh, several central ministers have held rallies in Bengal already. However, after the announcement of elections, Shah has visited the state only once. He attended a rally in support of BJP candidate Sukanta Majumdar from Balurghat constituency.
The Raiganj Lok Sabha seat will to go polls in the second phase, 26 April. This time, BJP has fielded Kartik Pal from this constituency. In the 2019 elections, BJP’s candidate Debashree Chowdhury won this seat on a BJP ticket. Later, she was appointed as a minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet. However, this time, BJP did not nominate her from this seat. She has been nominated as a candidate from Kolkata South Sabha constituency. Trinamul has nominated Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj. In the 2021 Assembly elections, he had won on a BJP ticket and later joined the Trinamul. Therefore, Trinamul is relying on him to defeat BJP in Raiganj.
In the third phase, elections will be held in Malda South. In the 2019 elections, this Lok Sabha constituency was won by the Congress. Since 2009, this seat has been continuously won by Congress’s Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury. This time, his son Isha Khan is contesting from this seat on behalf of Congress. On the other hand, BJP has nominated Srirupa Mitra Chowdhury as its candidate. In the last election, she was also nominated by the saffron party. It is noteworthy that Shah’s visit to support BJP candidate Raju Bista was planned for Darjeeling on Sunday. However, due to bad weather in Darjeeling, Shah’s helicopter couldn’t take off, twice. Later, the helicopter headed towards Bihar. He also sent a message to his supporters through a phone call.
