Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit West Bengal on Friday to address a BJP rally in Durgapur and unveil key infrastructure projects, in a politically charged backdrop marked by TMC's outcry over alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in several BJP-ruled states.
This will be Modi's first visit to the state after Samik Bhattacharya was appointed the new West Bengal BJP president earlier this month.
The prime minister will arrive in Durgapur from Bihar and first participate in a government programme, before addressing a public rally organised by the party, a senior state BJP leader said.
With West Bengal slated to go to the polls in April-May 2026, the visit is being seen as a high-voltage political manoeuvre by the BJP to consolidate its position in the state.
It comes just days before Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's annual Martyrs' Day rally on July 21, where she is expected to issue a clarion call to her party workers ahead of the polls.
In a significant political backdrop to the prime minister's visit, West Bengal is witnessing a wave of protests and strong political rhetoric over the detention and alleged profiling of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-governed states, including Assam, Odisha, Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Alleging that Bengalis are being routinely targeted and labelled as "illegal Bangladeshis", Banerjee and the TMC have sharpened their Bengali identity pitch, a strategy that proved electorally effective during the 2021 assembly polls in blunting the BJP's Hindutva narrative. -- PTI
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