Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh to address rallies in Darjeeling today

Kolkata, Apr 20: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are scheduled to address rallies at Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal on Sunday, insiders of the state unit of BJP said.

Darjeeling is one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal that will go to the polls in the second phase on April 26, the other two being Raiganj and Balurghat. BJP candidates had won from these three constituencies in 2019.

State party insiders said that besides Darjeeling, Singh might also hold rallies for two other constituencies namely Maldaha Uttar and Murshidabad on the same day. Both these constituencies are scheduled for voting in the third phase on May 13. While the BJP candidate was elected from Maldaha Uttar in 2019, the Trinamool Congress wrested control in Murshidabad.

State BJP sources said that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath might also come to the state for campaigning before the second phase of polls. However, the date of his meeting is yet to be finalised.

Earlier, the Union home minister had addressed a rally at Balurghat in West Bengal on April 10. In that meeting, he accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of shielding the accused in the blast at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore district in December 2022 by her attempts to incriminate the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths investigating the blast.

He also accused the Chief Minister of always opposing constructive steps like the abolition of the “triple-talaq” system or the introduction of CAA to pursue her appeasement politics.