Kolkata, Nov 2 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party national president Nitin Nabin will arrive in Kolkata on Monday afternoon to lead the party’s “Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao” (save democracy, eliminate anarchy) rally, which will begin at College Street and conclude at Esplanade in central Kolkata.
Following the rally, the BJP chief is expected to review the party’s preparations for elections to seven urban local bodies in the state, including Kolkata.
The rally is part of the BJP’s nationwide campaign against the Opposition protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The SIR protests have been spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and supported by the Congress-led INDIA bloc and other opposition parties, according to the BJP’s account of the campaign.
Nabin is scheduled to arrive at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport from Patna shortly after 2 pm. He will proceed directly to College Street, the starting point of the rally, and lead the march to Esplanade. It remains unclear whether he will address party workers and supporters at the concluding gathering.
Monday’s programme will mark the start of an extended BJP campaign across West Bengal against the anti-SIR protests. State BJP vice-president Prabal Raha said similar rallies would be held in Howrah, adjoining Kolkata, and Siliguri in Darjeeling district on November 3.
The second phase of the campaign is scheduled to begin on November 11, after Kali Puja and Diwali. The party plans to organise marches at 800 locations across the state, each with at least 10,000 participants, Raha said. The BJP also intends to bring national-level leaders and supporters from different parts of the country into the campaign in urban centres across Bengal.
After the Kolkata rally, Nabin is expected to meet state BJP leaders to review preparations for elections to seven urban local bodies in West Bengal. These include the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC).
A state BJP committee member said the discussions would focus on the party’s strategy for the civic polls, including candidate selection. The leadership may also take up the preparation of preliminary candidate lists for the KMC and HMC elections.
Nabin is expected to leave for Delhi either on Monday night or on Tuesday morning.
The elections to the seven municipal bodies are likely to be held in the third or fourth week of December, according to the schedule being discussed. The results are expected in the last week of December or the first week of January 2027.
The BJP’s campaign is expected to run alongside its preparations for the civic elections, giving the state leadership two parallel organisational tasks in the weeks ahead.
–IANS
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