A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched several projects in West Bengal—as well as in Assam—the Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress on Saturday kicked off two mass mobilisation programmes from Nadia district of the state.
While the saffron party chief J P Nadda flagged off a five-legged Parivartan Yatra (Change March) the Trinamool Congress too kick-started its two-day Motor-bike Rally in the same district.
On the other hand, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a massive Jan Samarthan Yatra in East Midnapore, said to be the stronghold of the former TMC leader and a new leading light of the BJP, Suvendhu Adhikari.
As the BJP is well aware that the farmers’ movement may spread to the eastern states, especially West Bengal, which is known for such agitations, Nadda made it a point to highlight as to how the Mamata Banerjee government in the state did not implement the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, a scheme launched in 2019 and according to which each farmer is paid Rs 6,000 every year in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each.
The West Bengal government had its own Krishak Bandhu Yojana, also launched in the same year. As per this scheme of the Mamata government each farmer having one acre or more land gets Rs 5,000 every year.
However, on Friday Mamata Banerjee, while presenting the Vote on Account for the year 2021-22 raised this amount to Rs 6,000 per year. She presented it in the absence of ailing finance minister Amit Mitra.
On Sunday Prime Minister Modi made a second trip to poll-bound West Bengal since January 23 where he inaugurated several projects including an LPG import terminal in Haldia in East Midnapore district.
