Kolkata

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit West Bengal on Saturday to address a rally at the iconic Brigade Parade Ground and inaugurate development projects worth around ₹18,680 crore.

The rally, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will mark the culmination of the party’s statewide Parivartan Yatra campaign ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The yatra, which began on March 1 following the publication of revised electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), covered nearly 10,000 km across the state. Party leaders described it as a large-scale mobilisation effort aimed at strengthening booth-level organisation and outreach.

According to official data released on February 28 after the revision exercise, around 63.66 lakh names — about 8.3 per cent of the electorate — have been removed from the voter list since the process began in November last year. This reduced the voter base from approximately 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.

Additionally, more than 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the “under adjudication” category, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks.

Modi’s visit comes amid reports that the Election Commission of India may announce the Assembly election schedule next week.

During the visit, the prime minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for multiple development projects spanning road infrastructure, railways, ports and shipping sectors.

In a major push for road connectivity, Modi will launch several national highway projects with a combined length of more than 420 km, worth around ₹16,990 crore. These include sections of National Highway 19 in West Bengal and Jharkhand and National Highway 114 in West Bengal.

He will also lay the foundation stone for new highway projects, including five packages of the 231-km four-lane Kharagpur–Moregram economic corridor section of National Highway 116A.

In the railway sector, the prime minister will inaugurate six redeveloped railway stations in the state under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, aimed at upgrading passenger amenities and infrastructure.

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Saturday’s rally will also be Modi’s first public meeting at the Brigade Parade Ground since his campaign address there ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.