KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will on Thursday attend the nomination filing of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and take part in a major roadshow at Bhabanipur. His presence at the programme and a rally near the residence of Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee sets the stage for the most prestigious electoral showdown between the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
Adhikari is scheduled to submit his nomination papers at the Survey Building before leading a procession from Hazra Crossing, where Shah is expected to join him.
Shah is also likely to address a rally close to Banerjee’s residence on Harish Chatterjee Street, underscoring the high political stakes.
The roadshow will pass near the homes of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, adding symbolic significance to the contest.
A decorated tableau carrying Shah and Adhikari will halt around 200 metres from the Survey Building. From there, both leaders will walk to the venue where Adhikari will file his papers.
Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in 2021, is also contesting from that seat this time and has already filed his nomination there.
Shah’s participation comes days after his sharp attacks on the ruling dispensation, during which he alleged corruption, infiltration, and governance failures, and released a detailed chargesheet against the state government. Leaders of the BJP see the high-voltage campaign as a key effort to consolidate support amid perceived anti-incumbency sentiment.
Electoral roll revisions have reduced the voter base in the constituency, adding another layer of complexity ahead of polling. Bhabanipur saw the deletion of around 47,000
dead and duplicate voters during the first phase of the SIR exercise, along with another 14,000 adjudicated electors. Following this large-scale revision, the total electorate in the constituency has dropped to around 1.6 lakh.