Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit West Bengal on Saturday to address a rally at the iconic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata and launch development projects worth around Rs 18,680 crore, marking his first trip to the state after the publication of revised electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The rally, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will mark the culmination of the party’s statewide Parivartan Yatra campaign ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
After the surge in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the setback in the 2021 Assembly election, the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra is being seen by party leaders as its most expansive mobilisation exercise in the state in recent years.
The yatra, which began on March 1, a day after the publication of the revised electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision process, covered nearly 10,000 kilometres across the state.
Party leaders described the campaign as both a mass-contact exercise and an organisational stress test aimed at converting booth-level groundwork into visible street mobilisation ahead of the polls.
According to official data released on February 28 after the SIR exercise, around 63.66 lakh names, nearly 8.3 per cent of the electorate, were deleted from the rolls since the revision process began in November last year. This reduced the voter base in the state from about 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.
In addition, more than 60.06 lakh electors have been placed in the “under adjudication” category, meaning their eligibility will be decided through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks.
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Modi’s visit comes amid indications that the Election Commission of India may announce the schedule for the Assembly elections next week.
During the visit, the Prime Minister is scheduled to inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for several development projects spanning road infrastructure, railways, ports and shipping.
In a major push for connectivity, Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for national highway projects with a combined length of more than 420 kilometres, worth around Rs 16,990 crore.
These include sections of National Highway 19 in West Bengal and Jharkhand, and National Highway 114 in West Bengal, aimed at improving road safety, reducing travel time and strengthening regional connectivity.
The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for several highway projects, including five packages of the 231-km four-lane Kharagpur–Moregram economic corridor section of National Highway 116A.
In the railway sector, Modi will inaugurate six redeveloped railway stations under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, aimed at modernising passenger amenities and railway infrastructure.
Saturday’s rally will also mark the Prime Minister’s first public meeting at Brigade Parade Ground since his campaign address at the venue ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.
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