It is going to be a politically eventful day in Kolkata and other regions in the state of West Bengal, where the first major election in India is going to be held this year.

Union home minister Amit Shah, who is in West Bengal on a two-day visit to bolster the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign, will flag off the party’s fifth and final rath yatra on Thursday.

This is Shah’s second visit to the poll-bound state within a week. He had come to West Bengal for one day on February 11.

“Shah is scheduled to flag off the fifth and final parivartan rath yatra today (Thursday) from Namkhana in South 24 Parganas district. He will also visit the Kapil Muni Ashram on Sagar Island and Bharat Sevashram Sangha in Kolkata,” said a BJP leader.

The union home minister will have lunch with a refugee family at Narayanpur village in South 24 Parganas. Thereafter, he will attend a roadshow before coming back to Kolkata.

 “Shah also has a set of programmes to attend on Friday before he flies back to New Delhi,” said a BJP leader.

While Shah is scheduled to flag off the rath yatra around 12.50pm, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew, will address a rally around the same time in the same district to launch a counter offensive.

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A head-to-head political battle will play out today in Kolkata’s neighbouring South 24 Parganas district where Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are scheduled to address rallies separated by some distance. It is for the first time in the run-up to the assembly elections that Banerjee and Shah will be holding rallies in the same district and more or less at the same time in the afternoon.

He is scheduled to visit Kakdwip area near Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas district, where he will flag off the final leg of the five phases Parivartan Yatra of the BJP in the state.

A senior state BJP leader said yesterday that Amit Shah will visit Kapil Muni Ashram today. From there he will go to Namkhana where he will address Poribartan Yatra, he informed.

Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC

The BJP leader added that Shah is also scheduled to have lunch at the residence of a migrant labourer and later take part in a roadshow.

Meanwhile, Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the local party MP, is slated to address party workers meeting at Pailan in South 24 Parganas on Thursday.

“It will be a politically important day tomorrow. Both Shah and Didi will address rallies in the same district,” a senior South 24 Parganas TMC leader said.

After having a limited presence in politically polarized Bengal for decades, BJP has emerged as the main rival of the ruling Trinamool Congress after winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 general elections, only four less than the TMC tally of 22.

Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021

The crucial state assembly elections are due in March-April this year and the BJP has set a target of winning more than 200 seats out of the 294 seats this time. The TMC has, however, claimed that the BJP will not make it to the double digits.

A BJP leader, associated with the planning of the fifth rath yatra, said that the final rath yatra will be a direct challenge to the chief minister and her nephew.

“The fifth rath yatra will pass through two prestigious constituencies, Diamond Harbour and South Kolkata. While the former is the constituency of TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee, South Kolkata is the home turf of the chief minister. Mamata Banerjee is the MLA of Bhawanipur assembly constituency in South Kolkata,” the BJP leader said.

Plans are afoot to take the rally through Sirakol in Diamond Harbour, the spot where the convoy of BJP national president JP Nadda was attacked on December 10, 2020.

According to BJP leaders, the rath yatra will initially take off as a small one from the Kapil Muni ashram in Sagar Island, where Shah is scheduled to visit. Millions of pilgrims congregate at Ganga Sagar every year in mid-January to take a holy dip at the confluence of River Ganges and the Bay of Bengal in the southern tip of West Bengal during the Ganga Sagar Mela.