Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing rallies in West Bengal’s Kharagpur in the morning and another rally in Assam in the afternoon on Saturday to campaign for the BJP in the two states.
The prime minister has already addressed multiple rallies in these states ahead of the elections. In Bengal the BJP has also told the Election Commission that central forces need to be present in polling booths in West Bengal and check ID cards of each voter to ensure free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, the TMC has continued to attack the BJP and the leaders who moved to the BJP. On Friday while addressing a rally in East Midnapore’s Tamluk area said, “I blindly supported him. My care towards him was blind. But now I will not tolerate it any more. No place for ‘gaddar’ (traitor). No place for ‘Mir Jafar’. We will not leave an inch to him and to any opposition candidates in any seats in Bengal.”
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asserted that his party, if voted to power in Assam, will ensure that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is not implemented in the state. Affirming that no religion teaches enmity, Gandhi, during his interaction with college students here in Dibrugarh district, said the saffron party was “selling hatred to create divisions among people”.
“It is the BJP that uses hatred to divide society. No matter where they go to spread hatred, the Congress will ensure it promotes there love and harmony,” he said.
In an apparent reference to the RSS – the BJP’s ideological fountainhead — the Congress leader said there is “one force in Nagpur that is trying to control the entire country” but the youths must resist this attempt with love and confidence as they happen to be the future of the country.
“Congress guarantees to Assam: we will give 200 units of free electricity to every family. We will give every housewife Rs 2,000 per month,” he added.
Gandhi, who is in Assam on a two-day visit, is scheduled to release the party’s manifesto in the poll-bound state on Saturday.
Billed as the most remarkable state election in recent times, the showdown in West Bengal boils down to two questions in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) camp: who is the David and who is the Goliath in this epic encounter, and can the party cash in on sub-regional equations and what it believes to be a sentiment in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to dislodge chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s government?
Ask senior BJP leaders in Delhi and they cite Banerjee’s recent injury to drive home the point that the Goliath is now trying to portray itself as the David, a reference to the biblical story of underdog David defeating the giant Goliath in combat.
According to party insiders, the visuals of Banerjee campaigning on a wheelchair after she was injured at a rally in the high-profile Nandigram constituency earlier this month — she has alleged a BJP plot to kill her — appear to be a last and desperate throw of the dice by the chief minister.
“Here is a two-time CM with the muscle power of a well-entrenched cadre, money and resources…(but) the proverbial Goliath suddenly wants to play the sympathy card against a party that was a non-entity in the state with just three seats five years ago,” a BJP leader says, requesting anonymity.
Instead, the BJP says, it is the one that has struggled to find even hoarding space for publicity materials in the state, especially in Kolkata, which is plastered with Banerjee’s face, but is still being projected frantically by the ruling Trinamool Congress as an “outsider” and the dominant aggressor.
Nonetheless, the BJP camp thinks it has multiple reasons for its confidence that it will win Bengal, which has 294 seats. The BJP leadership has set a target of winning over 200 of them.
Replicating UP, Tripura Strategy
Bengal will be to Modi’s NDA II what Uttar Pradesh (UP) was to Modi’s NDA I, the BJP camp believes. In India’s most populous state, which has a 403-member assembly, the party rose from 47 seats in 2012 to 325 seats in 2017. Now, it sees a similar momentum in Bengal. The strategy for the eastern state seems borrowed heavily from UP as well as Tripura, where the BJP had a tough job in hand. But eventually, it ended the Left’s 20-year-old rule in Tripura in 2018, winning 36 of the state’s 60 seats. Significantly, it had drawn a blank five years ago.
A pointer to the “sweep” the BJP expects in Bengal is the response that Modi has been getting in there since 2019, party insiders say, claiming similarities in UP between 2014 and 2016 with people thronging his rallies.
This is said to be the reason why Modi could address as many as two dozen rallies in all in Bengal, rivalling what he did in UP, which has 37% more seats, in 2017. In Bengal, Modi has chosen to attack alleged corruption and nepotism under Banerjee’s watch, factors the BJP feels reflect the ground narrative.
BJP leaders cite smaller pointers too. Like a section of people in Nandigram coming out to counter Bannerjee and the Trinamool’s version of events leading up to her injury. This kind of a reaction is unlikely towards a government that is returning to power, a senior minister and a star campaigner says. Another is “Jai Sri Ram” becoming a slogan “that has come from the people” and a sign of discontent against the Trinamool government, the minister adds. This, the BJP feels, has reflected in the CM’s recitals of Chandi Path to showcase her Hindu identity, and her manifesto dropping a specific section on Muslim welfare, which was there in 2016. Moreover, her increasing personal attacks on Modi only work in the BJP’s favour, as she does not seem to have picked a trick on this front from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, according to party insiders.
The PM is focusing on promises that the BJP feels are silently ringing a bell among the electorate on the ground — Rs 18,000 pay-out to each farmer in one go under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi plan, Rs 5-lakh medical insurance cover under Ayushman Bharat, the roll-out of ambitious drinking water scheme Har Ghar Jal, and bringing Hindu OBCs (Other Backward Classes) into the reservation net. Banerjee has had to counter this by promising monthly income support for state residents and reservation for some backward Hindu caste groups under the OBC umbrella.
Meanwhile, BJP’s ministers have been told to drill in the point that the state’s infrastructure is stuck in the 1960s and that Banerjee has refused to implement the Centre’s schemes for political reasons and minority appeasement. The law and order plank is being raked up to dent Banerjee’s women voter base.
Countering Trinamool
The BJP is, however, cognisant of the Trinamool’s sub-regional strength. It also remembers its below-par showing in the large pocket of South Bengal even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which it won 18 out of the 42 seats. But 2021 is not 2019. The mood is “all-pervasive” and the party has built upon its 2019 success, BJP insiders reason. This includes wooing the tribal people and the Scheduled Castes (SCs), reaching out to the Dalit Matua community, and BJP president JP Nadda’s promise to include “left out” Hindu castes in the OBC list if the party wins the elections. It hopes this would offset 30% Muslim votes that could consolidate behind the Trinamool, although the Left-Congress-Indian Secular Front bloc is also in the fray.
Divided on the lines of religion, caste and community, Bengal offers a complex challenge of sub-regional politics. Banerjee’s strongest fort is South Bengal with over 90 assembly seats, but the BJP feels the region may have a different pattern of voting for the first time. The North 24-Paraganas and Nadia districts (40 seats) near the border with Bangladesh have the Matua community, who are refugees from Bangladesh, as the deciding factor in 15-16 constituencies. The BJP feels it has an edge with the promise of operationalising the Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, once the Covid-19 vaccination is over. The BJP leadership has stressed its commitment to implementing the law that fast-tracks citizenship of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis who have arrived in India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015. Modi’s planned visit to a Matua temple during his Bangladesh trip, on the first day of polling in Bengal, will be an event high on optics.
The road remains tough for the BJP in South Bengal’s big district of South 24-Parganas, which is the only district where the Trinamool got leads in all 31 assembly segments in 2019. Muslims account for at least 30% of the total population here, and that makes the BJP’s challenge difficult until there is an absolute polarisation of votes. The party is, however, hoping for a turnaround in the key East Midnapore district, which has been a strong citadel of Banerjee. With Suvendu Adhikari, who used to manage these areas for the CM, defecting and being fielded against her from Nandigram, the BJP hopes political equations will change.
The BJP is also trying its best to hold on to its dominance in ‘Jangalmahal’, the forested and interior rural areas of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore that contributed to its impressive showing in 2019. Banerjee has launched several cash schemes for tribal people here to regain lost ground. Similar are the expectations from North Bengal, where the BJP won all six Lok Sabha seats in 2019 with support from Rajbanshi indigenous communities in Coochbehar and the namasudras in border districts. Namasudras, including Matuas, are refugees from Bangladesh. For them, the CAA promise is a key factor.
The BJP is also hoping that the Muslim-majority districts of Malda and Murshidabad will side with the Congress again, causing a split in Muslim votes and denting Banerjee’s chances in the process. The hill districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, however, remain a mystery with the traditionally strong party, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, splitting into two factions. The one led by Bimal Gurung has joined hands with the Trinamool, while the BJP has chosen not to align with any faction.
War of Wits
The BJP won’t cross 100 seats, the Trinamool’s strategist, Prashant Kishor, has said, a claim the BJP sees as a tacit admission of its impending rise. The ruling party is playing up protests inside the BJP over ticket distribution and has alleged low attendance at rallies by BJP leaders. As the battle heats up, some assume the BJP may run Trinamool close, but not win. They think that the BJP will have to be content with a “moral victory” like the Congress claimed to have in Gujarat in 2017. But home minister Amit Shah’s declaration that the BJP will win 200+ seats shows each seat matters. For Modi and Shah, David, or the BJP in battle ground Bengal, beating Goliath paves the road to a third term at the Centre in 2024.
The poll pot is about to reach boiling point and, among all the states where elections are to be held, West Bengal is generating the most heat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the biggest star campaigner and vote-catcher for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and his appearance has provoked much curiosity and conjecture in the past few months. His long hair and flowing beard have led to comparisons with Rabindranath Tagore. Party leaders have pointed out that universalism and self-reliance are among the poet’s views that Modi has connected to his policies and politics, even as the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress has been trying to paint him and the BJP as “outsiders”.
But this is not the only connection the PM has with Bengal. Modi came to Delhi as Prime Minister in 2014. However, his first visit to Tagore’s land happened long back. At the age of 17, when he left home to tour across the country, one of the first few places he visited was the Ramakrishna Mission at Kolkata’s Belur Math. In fact, he wanted to become a monk but faced rejection three times. Swami Madhavanandaji, the-then president of RKM, turned Modi away. He finally met Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj, who was the Mission head in Rajkot in 1996. Swamiji had a huge influence on Modi’s life by bringing to him the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.
In fact, after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi’s first visit to Bengal in May 2015 saw him go to the Belur Math and Dakshineswar Kali Temple and meet an ailing Swami Atmasthanandji Maharaj in hospital.
From coining terms like “Ashol Poriborton” which translates to “real change” to counter the TMC slogan “Khela Hobe” (game on), to his own style of saying “Khela Shesh, Vikas Shuru” (game ends, development begins), the PM has often received thunderous responses from crowds at rallies in poll-bound Bengal.
When speaking on Bengal, Modi has often been mentioning mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa, mathematician Radhanath Sikdar, philosopher Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Independence icon Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Nobel Prize-winning poet Tagore, all proud sons of Bengal’s soil.
Those who’ve followed the journey of Narendra Modi will agree that he has the art of picking up local languages and speaking them even if it’s just a couple of sentences or even a few words.
On the occasion of Mahashashti last year, the PM had virtually inaugurated a Durga Puja programme organised by the BJP’s mahila morcha and its cultural wing in Kolkata. He began his speech in Bangla by saying, “Prothome aapnader shokolke janayi Shree Shree Durga Pujor, Kali Pujor priti o subhechha. Banglar ei pobitro bhumi te Durga Pujor shomoy aapnader shokoler moddhe aashte pere aaj aami nije ke dhonno maanchi (I extend my greetings for Durga Puja, Kali Puja and I feel very lucky to be with you on the holy land of Bengal on this occasion).”
Even when speaking at the Victoria Memorial on the January 23 Parakram Diwas celebrations this year to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Modi spoke quite a few lines.
At the 2019 ‘Howdy, Modi!’ mega event in Houston, the PM had said, “When you have asked ‘Howdy, Modi!’, then my heart says the answer to that really is, ‘All is well in India’.”
He added, “Bharat me sab achha hai … Sab changa si … Saba maja mache … Anta baagundi … Ella chenaagide … Yellam soukhyam …Sarva chhanchalale aahe… Sab khub bhalo… Saboo bhalaachhi,” in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, etc.
In fact, whenever he is visiting a state, he uses the local languages to get local connections.
On October 31, 2020, while speaking at the National Unity Day celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Kevadia, PM Modi had quoted a poem in Tamil by legendary poet Subramania Bharati, which speaks of India being a “golden country”.
While addressing the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul in Varanasi in February last year, the PM received widespread applause as he spoke in four different languages, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, and Hindi, on the occasion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in fact is often seen exchanging tweets with world leaders in their local languages and a similar response comes from them in Indian languages. From the Japanese PM to the Australian Prime Minister to the Israeli government, Modi’s personal touch with everyone is unmissable and the connection quite personalised.
The Congress will empower housewives, ensure women’s safety against the rising crime graph in Assam, provide the cushion against inflation and give the self respect that they deserve if voted to power in the coming assembly poll in the state, AICC spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said on Wednesday. Congress will implement the ‘Grihini Samman Guarantee’ if it comes to power, Shrinate told reporters here.
The scheme had been launched by party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during her visit to Tezpur on March 2. The Congress has pledged 5 Guarantee Programme for the people of Assam and one of the most important commitment is towards the housewives of the state, Shrinate said at a press conference here.
There has been special relevance of women in the Assamese society and the 81.2 per cent female literacy rate in the state is one of the highest in the country. But for long the contribution of the housewives has not been recognised or appreciated enough which the Congress seeks to set right, she said. Congress will promote and empower women as an equally important stakeholder in all household functions and decisions, Shrinate said.
“we will empower Assam and we pledge to implement the ‘Grihini Samman Guarantee’ that will cover all housewives of the state without any restriction or underlying clauses”, the Congress leader said. “The home is the cradle of civilization and we are resolute on starting our mission of empowering women at the household level,” she said.
The ‘Grihini Samman Guarantee’ seeks to provide every housewife Rs 2000 each month. The programme will cover all housewives, including widowed and divorced women, even if she has a job or works as a daily labourer to give self respect that all of them deserve. This programme will be implemented within the first few days of the Congress coming to power in the state, Shrinate said.
“A housewife not only manages the household but also has the responsibility of steering its future and that of the society. Recognizing and giving value to the work that they do is quintessential in elevating the respect for them in the society,” the Congress leader said. The party believes that through the Grihini Samman Guarantee housewives will be empowered to make better consumption investment decisions for their households, negotiate price rise, provide better nutrition and better future for their children, she said.
”When we look at the jobs women do at home, even though they may not be working outside, we see the unpaid labour that goes unaccounted and the time has come to ensure that women are recognized for the contribution they make to society, ” Shrinate added.
The Matuas are a religious sect of West Bengal comprising largely of Namasudras, the second largest lower caste group in West Bengal with a share of 17.4% of the Dalit population of the state. They are basically a migrant community from Bangladesh. As per different estimates, they are around 70 lakh to 1 crore in number though community leaders put it at 3 crore. Their main demands are citizenship rights and refugee rehabilitation.
The Rajbanshis are the largest SC group of the state forming 18.4% of the Dalit population in the state. Their number is estimated to be around 50 lakh. They want territorial autonomy with many community leaders demanding a separate state, Greater Cooch Behar with some districts of West Bengal and Assam. They also want an Indian Army battalion named as Narayani Sena, the army of the erstwhile Princely State of Cooch Behar.
Matuas and Rajbanshis
Once TMC supporters, both the communities recently switched to the BJP wagon based on the poll promises.
Matua and Rajbanshi Factor in the Last Lok Sabha and Assembly Election
BJP promised Matuas and other refuges of West Bengal Indian citizenship through the CAA, winning their support that helped it in winning around 10 of the 18 overall victory mark.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in fact, started his 2019 Bengal campaign from Matua Mahasangha headquarter in Bongaon in Thakurnagar.
While BJP is trying to replicate the same connect in the upcoming Assembly election as well, Mamata is also playing her cards after some Matua leaders getting vocal on CAA delay. They are angry that the central government is yet to announce the CAA implementation date even after two years of the Lok Sabha polls.
Mamata says BJP made a fake promise and Matuas don’t need Indian citizenship and in fact if CAA is implemented, Matuas will lose land and identity.
But BJP that got its first Assembly success in the state in a Namasudras dominated constituency only, Basirhat Dakshin Assembly constituency in 2014, and went on to wrest the Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that was earlier held by the TMC and CPM, looks all set to fill that gap.
Amit Shah broke bread with a Namasudra household in November and assured Matuas and other refuges of the state that CAA will be implemented once the Covid vaccination drive is complete in the country. Also, PM Modi, during his Bangladesh visit, will visit a Matua temple on March 27.
Before the 2016 Assembly election, the BJP allied with the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association (GCPA). In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP made electoral promise of naming a battalion on Narayani Sena. With Rajbanshi’s support, the BJP was able to west the Cooch Behar seat from TMC.
The TMC is trying to win them back over. While the Indian Army is yet to have a Narayani regiment, Mamata has already created a Narayani Battalion in the state police force along with announcing state holiday on the birth anniversary of Panchanan Barma, a Rajbanshi icon and reformer. She has also approved a Rajbangshi language board and 200 Rajbangshi-medium primary schools.
The bus part of BJP’s ‘Rath Yatra’ was vandalised on Tuesday in West Bengal’s Purulia. The incident occurred shortly after Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s rally in Purulia district’s Manbazar area.
Many police personnel have been deployed in the area after the incident and BJP has alleged that Trinamool Congress is behind the vandalisation, but ruling Bengal party has denied the claims.
The incident allegedly took place when the ‘Poriborton’ Rath Yatra was returning to Purulia after completing rounds of all nine assembly constituencies of the district.
BJP’s rath for the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Samman Yatra, parked in Purulia, vandalised. Driver suffered injuries. BJP national president J P Nadda would be flagging off the yatra anytime now from Kotulpur. TMC won’t be able to do much to stop it!What is Pishi so scared of? pic.twitter.com/8bD8gAzPUC
BJP leader Amit Malviya said the bus driver was injured in the incident.
“BJP’s rath for the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Samman Yatra, parked in Purulia, vandalised. Driver suffered injuries. BJP national president JP Nadda would be flagging off the yatra anytime now from Kotulpur. TMC won’t be able to do much to stop it!,” he said.
Reports said BJP workers and supporters, led by the party’s Manbazar candidate Gouri Singh Sardar, have begun blocking roads in the city, demanding that those responsible for the incident be arrested immediately.
The dimly lit classroom with wooden benches near the Jhargram Raj College looks like that of any other school. But these are special schools. They are the Shishu Shiksha Kendras, pre-primary informal schools run by the RSS. The teachers in these schools don’t necessarily teach from books, there are games and the children are relaxed.
These schools have had a deep impact in the tribal green belt of Bengal. Just as the Left hold on this area waned and Mamata Bannerjee government pushed several development works in this area, once the hub of Naxal activities, the RSS saw an opportunity. Simmering discontent over land, the need for modern farming techniques and people’s ambition to get good jobs — these were perfect ingredients for the entry of the RSS. Several Hari Sabhas or religious clubs were set up. Student hostels, Ekal Vidyalayas or coaching centres began to crop up.
Wearing gamchhaas over their shoulders, many locals began advising farmers on how to use traditional methods to increase crop output and even cultivate abandoned infertile land. They were the RSS swayamsevaks. And slowly the BJP began to make inroads. It bore fruit when in the 2018 Panchayat polls where the TMC received a jolt. Of the 20 seats in the Balarampur Panchayat Samiti, the BJP won 18. It also swept 7 gram panchayat and two zilla parishad seats in Balarampur that falls in the Jhargram assembly segment.
RSS swayamsevaks began work in the area since 2014, in the spheres of health, education and moral ‘upliftment’ of people.
Water is one of the basic problems in this area. Eighty-two-year-old Lulu Mahato has just had a cataract operation and can barely see. But what he can certainly see is the lack of basic facilities like water and sanitation. “Look at this gutter, it’s so dirty. We don’t get water. Some people come and give it to us, they are the RSS people we know. But suddenly a few days back this tap was set up. We know elections are here.”
Sudhir Gorai, who has come to check on his friend Lulu, agrees. “Yes the TMC government has done a lot of work here. We have seen development. But I see how my family suffers for want of water.”
The RSS and BJP have scored in beginning small. The swayamsevaks saw that providing basic facilities like tube wells and drains would help them reach out to the people of Jhargram. As development came into this area, ambitions rose. The youth want jobs, and the many coaching and training centres have given hope that the technical skill acquired would help them get jobs in big cities like Kolkata.
The TMC came in for another rude shock when in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP won the seat. Kunar Hembram is the Jhargram MP. It is believed that the anti-TMC, Congress and Left votes went to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and helped the BJP win. Having tasted success, the BJP wants to repeat it in the assembly seats as well. This is why top leaders like Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and JP Nadda have been campaigning here. But the TMC has now woken up. Mamata Bannerjee, in an obvious reach out to her pet Jangalmahal area, in which Jhargram falls, has promised water supply, free ration at people’s doorsteps and technical education.
Hovering around Sudhir Gorai are a handful of boys in their twenties. They said, “Those who give us jobs we will go for them. That’s all what matters to us. We don’t want to farm, we want to move out of Jhargram.”
The statues of tribal leaders like Sidhu Kanu, who are worshipped as gods in this belt, have been witness to many changes in this area. From being a Naxal stronghold, patronised by the Left to several incident of violence. It has seen development too, when Mamata Bannerjee nurtured this area. The Jhargram Rajbari, or palace, has been transformed into a popular heritage hotel and is a popular tourist destination. But Sidhu Kanu is also seeing some dissatisfaction creeping in. With development comes desire. There are complaints that local TMC leaders don’t let the benefits percolate down. The RSS uses its conventional door to door meetings to reach out, where the state government is unable to. And BJP is hopeful. Maybe Sidhu Kanu will see another change here.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikary, who is pitted against his mentor West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nandigram in the coming state election, has declared net worth of over Rs 80 lakh. As per the 50-year-old leader’s affidavit to the Election Commission his net worth is Rs 80,66,749.32.
His movable assets are worth Rs 59,31,647.32 while his bank balance is Rs 46,15,513.32, including Rs 41,823 in his election expenditure account. His income in 2019-20 was Rs 1,115,715.00 and his cash in hand is Rs 50,000.00, as per his affidavit.
Adhikari also has National Saving Certificate (NSC) deposit of RS 5,45,000 and insurance of Rs 7,71,165. Adhikary has immovable assets including plots of land worth Rs 46,21,102, it said.
In his affidavit the BJP leader has declared that he has criminal cases pending against him. He also declared himself to be a post graduate from Rabindra Bharati University and a resident of Nandigram constituency.
Adhikari had filed his nomination for the high octane battle at Nandigram on Friday. Polling in the constituency is slated for April 1.
Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: The BJP on Saturday is all set to declare names for candidates for Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The meeting will start at 5 pm on Saturday.
The BJP Kerala core group meeting will also take place at party chief JP Nadda’s residence in Delhi before the CEC meeting. Apart from Nadda, Amit Shah, BL Santhosh, K Surendran were also present. This was the meeting ahead of CEC on Saturday.
While Mamata Banerjee has been discharged from hospital on Friday, and left the hospital in a wheelchair, the TMC has already announced an event on Saturday to induct into the party “an eminent personality”. TMC MP Derek O’ Brien, anchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee, and TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay will be present for the event that will be held in Trinamool Bhavan.
