PM Modi to hold roadshow in Kolkata; Rahul-Akhilesh rally in Varanasi

The PM’s roadshow is set to conclude at Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral home. Last week, Mamata Banerjee had accused a “few monks” of the Ramakrishna Mission, a monastic order founded by Vivekananda, of helping the BJP in Bengal.

Kolkata set to vote in the final Lok Sabha election phase on June 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold his first roadshow in this poll season in Kolkata on Tuesday evening.

But first, Modi will campaign for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) founder Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren who is the BJP candidate from Dumka. The event is scheduled to begin at 12.15 pm. Sita’s late husband Durga Soren was considered a “natural successor” to Shibu. But his death in 2009 due to a brain haemorrhage led to the elevation of his younger brother Hemant Soren as the next leader. With her sister-in-law and Hemant’s wife Kalpana gaining popularity after her husband’s arrest in a case of alleged money laundering, Sita jumped ship and joined the BJP in March.

The PM will then travel to West Bengal for a two-day visit. He will address a public meeting in Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas district’s Barasat constituency around 2.30 pm and address an election rally in Baruipur in Jadavpur constituency in South 24 Parganas district. That event is scheduled to begin at 4 pm. After addressing the public meeting there, the PM will hold a 2.5-km roadshow from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statute at the Shyambazar five-point crossing in north Kolkata to Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house. The roadshow is scheduled to be held from 6 pm to 7 pm. The PM will be accompanied by state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

The PM is likely to meet monks of different monastic orders and, according to BJP sources, he may visit the home of Sarada Devi in Bagbazar. Sarada Devi was the wife of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the Hindu mystic after whom his disciple Swami Vivekananda named the Ramakrishna Mission monastic order.

In context: The destination of the roadshow holds symbolic value as it comes at a time when the Prime Minister and the BJP have targeted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her comment that “a few monks” of the Hindu monastic orders Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Ramakrishna Mission were working against her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) to help the BJP in Bengal.

The TMC went into a damage control mode after the row erupted as both the Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Ramakrishna Mission are widely revered across the state because of their charitable work and the several renowned schools that they run.

Recommended reading: Decode Politics | Caught in Mamata, BJP crossfire amid polls, who is Sevashram Sangha monk Kartik Maharaj.

In other campaign news

Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will travel together in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, addressing campaign rallies at the village of Tharwan in the Bansgaon (SC-reserved) constituency at 1.45 pm and at Mohansarai Chauraha in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency at 4 pm. The Rahul-Akhilesh rally comes days after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul’s sister, and SP leader Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh’s wife, held a roadshow in Varanasi city.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will be in Punjab, where he will address a press conference at 1 pm in Amritsar and a public meeting at 4 pm in Kotkapura in Faridkot. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will also be in Punjab, where he will address public rallies in Ferozpur at 4.10 pm and in Anandpur Sahib at 6.50 pm.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address three public rallies in Odisha. At 12.30 pm, he will be in Chandbali in the Bhadrak Lok Sabha constituency, followed by Panikoili in the Jajpur seat at 2.15 pm, and finally in Nimapada in Puri at 4 pm for the Jagatsinghpur seat.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar in Delhi

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah is scheduled to leave for New Delhi around 11 am to discuss with the Congress high command the names of candidates for the June 13 biennial election to 11 seats of the Legislative Council. Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress President D K Shivakumar is also scheduled to join him for the discussions. As per the existing strength of parties in the Assembly, the Congress can win seven seats, the BJP three, and the Janata Dal (Secular) one seat.

From the courts

Hemant Soren, who is in jail, filed a bail petition before the Jharkhand High Court on Monday. Soren’s petition has been listed for hearing on Tuesday before the bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay.

In Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Bibhav Kumar is expected to be produced before a magisterial court on Tuesday after the expiry of his four days in judicial custody.