Brigade Parade Ground gears up for Jan 19 mega rally

Kolkata: Hectic work is on and the final stage has been reached regarding preparations at the Brigade Parade Ground for the historic rally on January 19 where about 50 lakh people are expected to take part.

Twenty national leaders including former Prime Minister and Union ministers, sitting Chief Ministers and former Chief Ministers are expected to attend the meeting. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had held a high-level meeting at Nabanna with senior police officers and party leaders to prepare a foolproof blueprint.

According to the Chief Minister, the January 19 rally in Kolkata will decide the fate of 2019 Parliamentary elections by forming the Grand Alliance of Opposition leaders to dethrone the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

With Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi deciding to skip the rally, the party would be represented by leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

There will be seven entry points to the rally ground. No cooking will be allowed at the venue.

There will be 10 watch towers and 1,000 microphones and LED screens so that those who will be present at the rally can see and hear the speeches of the leaders more vividly.

The vehicles carrying party workers and supporters will be coming from South Kolkata and will be parked at Kidderpore and Hazra and those coming from North Kolkata will be parked on Ganesh Chandra Avenue.

The vehicles from Howrah will be parked at Kona Expressway. The party supporters will have to march towards the rally ground. No vehicles except those carrying VVIPs will be allowed near the rally ground.

There will be five stages. The main stage which will come up in front of the fountain opposite the Victoria Memorial Hall that will accommodate Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and other national leaders.

Trinamool heavyweights like Abhishek Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Bakshi will be on this stage. On the right of the main stage, there will be two stages, one for the MPs and state ministers and the other for the district presidents and functionaries.

On the left of the main dais will be two stages — one for those from the cultural world and on the other cultural programmes will be held. The party workers who will start coming to the city from the districts Thursday onwards will be put up at Gitanjali Stadium, Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra, Sector V and in different dharamshalas in Central and North Kolkata.

At Salt Lake's Central Park, as many as 50 tents have been set up. The arrangements are being supervised by Sujit Bose who is doing regular rounds to keep a check over the same.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to pay a visit to the Central Park venue to take stock of the situation and oversee the arrangements personally.

The supporters who have come to the city from other districts will march towards the rally ground at around 6 am.

One thousand strong folk artistes from Jhargram will take part in the rally. They have already left the district and will march to the rally ground.

There will be around 100 camps in the city to assist the party supporters. More than 2,000 party supporters will be engaged as volunteers.