No prime minister has ever visited Assam’s historic Dhekiajuli, where 13 died during the Quit India movement.
Kolkata / Guwahati:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the polling states of West Bengal and Assam today for the second time in just over two weeks. He was in Kolkata on January 23 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Parakram Diwas, and on the same day he visited Sibsagar district to deliver land titles to more than one lakh of indigenous people from the northeastern state.
The prime minister will first visit Assam and then move to West Bengal, where he will address his first electoral rally in the lead up to the state assembly elections. Significantly, the event will be held in Haldia, East Midnapur, the stronghold of Suvendu Adhikari, the former Trinamool minister who joined the BJP in December.
Later, the Prime Minister will inaugurate four oil and gas projects worth 4.7 billion rupees in Haldia.
Tomorrow night, he would be in Haldia, West Bengal. In a program there, he will dedicate the LPG import terminal built by BPCL to the nation. It will also be dedicated to the Dobhi – Durgapur national gas pipeline section of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project. pic.twitter.com/LepDe6dQEC
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 6, 2021
This feature is also likely to be monitored for potential political developments. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is said to have excused herself from the event, according to sources. Since other Trinamool leaders have also been invited, the list of final attendees is expected to send political signals.
For example, among the guests is Trinamool senior deputy Sisir Adhikari, who is reportedly staying away. Adhikari is the father of Suvendu Adhikari, whose brother, MP Dibyendu Adhikari, may attend, sparking speculation about another possible change in loyalty.
On 23 January, during the Parakram Diwas celebrations in Kolkata, a section of BJP supporters had raised the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” as the chief minister was addressing the meeting, leading her to interrupt her speech and reprimand who created the ruckus. This “insult she received” could be the reason she is probably staying away from today’s event, according to a PTI report. The Trinamool chief has also asked her party members to skip the program, according to the report, citing an unnamed senior official from the state secretariat.
In the Sonitpur district of Assam, the prime minister will lay the foundation stone for two medical schools and launch “Asom Mala”, a road and highway project. The two medical schools are being established in Biswanath and Charaideo at an estimated cost of more than Rs 1.1 billion, according to ANI.
The Dhekiajuli gathering place of Sonitpur in Assam is also significant, as no prime minister has ever visited the historic site where, during the British Raj, 13 people were martyred during the Quit India movement.
Assam and West Bengal are scheduled to go to the polls in April-May.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her annual budget speech a few days ago, allocated 34 billion rupees over three years for road projects in Assam. For West Bengal, which the BJP covets a lot, it allocated 25 billion rupees to build around 700 kilometers of roads. This is in addition to the 1 billion rupee welfare plan it announced for tea plantation workers in the two states.
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