West Bengal: BJP to take out 3 rallies for 42 constituencies
Setting sight on the 2019 General Elections, the BJP unit of West Bengal is about to bring out three rath yatras which will cover 42 Lok Sabha constituencies the state has. Announcing this, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that yatras would take place in December, but the campaigning for the same is likely to start only before the Durga Puja.
“The first rath yatra will start from the temple town of Tarapith in Birbhum district on December 3. Party president Amit Shah is likely to take part in it,” Ghosh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. “He is very keen on taking part in all the three yatras. But his dates need to be worked out. Union ministers, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and senior party leaders will take part in the rally,” Ghosh was quoted.
The three yatras would cover 42 constituencies equally with each yatra taking 14 constituencies. The second one from Namkhana to Gangasagar in South 24 Parganas would kick off on December 5 while the last one originating from Cooch Behar would begin two days later. “At the end of January, we have a plan to hold a massive rally in Kolkata which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Ghosh was quoted.
According to sources quoted by the news agency, the call to take out rallies was taken during party president Amit Shah’s visit to Kolkata in June. “Bengal is of immense importance for our party presently as people are fed up with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime. We need to win maximum number of seats from Eastern and North eastern India, especially Bengal,” a senior BJP leader was quoted by PTI on condition of anonymity.
The saffron party which has only two seats — Asansol and Darjeeling — is targeting 26-28 parliamentary seats in 2019.