JALPAIGURI: Amid the showdown between the ruling TMC and the BJP in the state over the attack on an NIA team in Purba Medinipur district during the raid in connection with a blast case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a public rally in Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal as part of his campaign vigils ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
PM Modi is scheduled to address the rally around 2 pm on Sunday in Jalpaiguri's Dhupguri, for which hectic preparations are currently underway.
Ahead of his visit to North Bengal, PM Modi, on Sunday, took to his official X handle to post, "This afternoon, I will be among the people of Jalpaiguri to address a rally. There is outstanding support in @BJP4Bengal's favour. The people of West Bengal are tired of TMC's corruption and poor governance. Only BJP can fulfil their dreams."
The visit to North Bengal will also be his first since the upper reaches of Bengal were hit by a severe storm. The storm, which also lashed vast swathes of the Northeast, left a trail of devastation in its wake.
PM Modi will headline the campaign event in favour of the BJP's sitting MP and Lok Sabha candidate Jayanta Kumar Roy.
The Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha seat will poll in the first of seven-phased Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
Earlier, PM Modi addressed a rally in Cooch Behar district, his first public meeting in the Bengal since the announcement of the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections.
Though the TMC, BJP, Left and the Congress are in fray for the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal, the battle is likely to be dominated by the ruling party and the principal Opposition force in the state.
The 42 parliamentary seats of Bengal will poll across all seven phases--on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1.
In 2019, Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal were also conducted in all seven phases, with the TMC winning 22 of the 42 seats and the BJP coming up with a much-improved showing from 2014, bagging 18 seats. The Congress had to settle for just two seats.
Apart from Jalpaiguri in North Bengal, PM Modi will also headline rallies at Nawada in Bihar and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
He will kick off campaign in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on Sunday with a roadshow in Jabalpur.
The roadshow, on a 1.2-km route, will start from Shaheed Bhagat Singh crossing on Sunday evening and culminate at Adi Shankaracharya crossing in Gorakhpur locality of Jabalpur, according to the BJP's city president Prabhat Sahu.
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