Cooch: On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will campaign in West Bengal, with a rally in Cooch Behar in north Bengal. Soon after, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will also campaign in Cooch Behar, holding two rallies in the district. Cooch Behar in north Bengal, a region where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made maximum electoral gains since the 2019 elections. This is the first time in this election season that the two leaders will be addressing voters of a constituency on the same day.
West Bengal has 42 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, the highest after Uttar Pradesh (80) and Maharashtra (48). In the previous 2019 polls, the BJP registered its best-ever performance in the state, winning 18 seats, including seven of the eight seats in north Bengal. The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress won 22 seats, and the Congress, two.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday filed his nomination papers from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency, from where he is the sitting MP. On April 5, the grand old party will unveil its manifesto for the general elections.
The BJP wrested all three seats from the ruling TMC in 2019. Two of the winners, Nisith Pramanik from Cooch Behar and John Barla from Alipurduar, are serving as Union ministers of state.
On Thursday, Modi is scheduled to address one rally in Cooch Behar, while Banerjee will address two, their parties announced on Wednesday night.
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