Midnapore: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a Krishak Kalyan Samavesh (farmer's welfare rally) on Monday at Midnapore town in West Bengal. The prime focus of the address will be on the Centre's recent decision to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Kharif crops. West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Dilip Ghosh said, "The prime minister's rally in Midnapore proves that Bengal is one of their top priority states in the Lok Sabha poll."

The rally, to be held on the Midnapore College grounds in the afternoon, would be the Prime Minister's first visit to the state this year. Modi will reach Midnapore around 12.30 p.m. and head straight to the rally ground.

The BJP has made steady inroads in various districts of West Bengal and has emerged as the main opposition party in the state after the recent panchayat elections and by-polls. The Central Government on July 4 approved the proposal to hike MSP by 50 per cent for 14 Kharif crops for the year 2018-19.

The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the proposal made by Union Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget 2018 of hiking the support price by one-and-a-half times of the production cost for Kharif crops. MSP is referred to a price at which the government buys crops from the farmers, to protect agriculture producers from fall in farm prices.

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah had addressed a rally in Purulia district last month, wherein he claimed that his party would win more than 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal.

Meanwhile, the BJP leadership accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of threatening private bus operators in many districts not to provide vehicles to ferry BJP activists to the Monday rally. The Trinamool Congress denied the charge.

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