TMC Brigade Rally To Set Tone For Lok Sabha Polls As Sandeshkhali Row Simmers, Massive Crowd Likely: Top Points

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is set to hold a mega rally in Kolkata kickstarting party's campaign for Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari will be in Sandeshkhali to address a rally

The Trinamool Congress will on Sunday throw open its campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with a grand rally at Kolkata's famed Brigade Parade Grounds. Party supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to galvanise supporters and set the tone for the general elections. 

The TMC's 'Jana Garjan Sabha' comes at a time when Sandeshkhali is still simmering from the Shahjahan Sheikh row, who has been accused of sexual harassment and land grab and is currently under the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation. 

While Mamata Banerjee will pull all the stops to charge her supporters who are expected to attend the rally in large numbers, Bengal Assembly's Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari will hold a public meeting at Akratala area under Nazat police station in North 24 Parganas district.

• The TMC's mega event will feature three platforms, including a cross ramp, in a departure from the conventional dias to ensure that the speakers — mainly Mamata Banerjee and TMC's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — are closer to a much larger section of the crowd. 


• “We are making a unique stage this time so that we can reach out to the majority of people gathered at the Maidan, who on other occasions, would find it difficult to have a proper look at the leaders standing on the dais, who would be far away from them,” a senior party leader told the Times of India. 

• There will be three main stages connected which will hold 600 leaders segregated in different sections. The main stage will be 72 feet wide and 20 feet long while the platform has been built at a height of 12 feet from the ground, the TOI report added. 


• The rally would centre around the alleged withholding of the state's financial dues by the central government, a contentious issue that has dominated state politics for the past two years.

BJP's Countermove 

• The BJP has, meanwhile, derided the rally terming it as the party's "farewell rally". 


• In a countermove, the saffron party will hold a rally in Sandeshkhali after receiving a green signal from the Calcutta High Court. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari will hold the rally in the Akratala area under Nazat police station in North 24 Parganas district. Shahjahan's residence is also located in a village in the Nazat police station area.


• In its direction, the court stated that nothing should be said at the rally that may lead to the deterioration of the law and order situation in the locality, which is situated near Sandeshkhali.


• Counsels appearing for Suvendu first sought permission to hold the meeting at Sundarikhali village under the Nazat police station area, but the court asked them to suggest an alternative place, as the state opposed the plea to hold the rally there.