Kolkata: With the Congress yet to draw up its campaign blueprint for Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, its state unit is learnt to have requested the party high command to see if Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ can also pass through Kolkata and Darjeeling.
Sources said West Bengal Pradesh Congress leaders held a meeting led by its chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The meeting was to determine the roadmap for the yatra when it will be passing through Bengal. As part of his journey, Rahul is set to enter North Bengal from Assam by January 27. The meeting involved discussions on the events that will be organised as part of the yatra.
Sources said that the state unit leaders have tried to convince the party’s high command to tweak the yatra route while passing from Bengal so Rahul can go via Kolkata and Darjeeling. It believes that Rahul’s presence can help stir up support for the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
However, it was learnt that chances are scant that such a route deviation can be materialised at the last hour. The Congress is focussed more on the Hills this time since the defection of Binay Tamang who switched to Congress from TMC. He has been made the general secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and has been given charge of the affairs in the Hills ahead of the polls.
On entering North Bengal, Rahul will be travelling through Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri in the first phase and then North Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad. He is learnt to have asked the Bengal unit of his party to arrange for meetings with tea garden workers, tribals, migrant labourers during his North Bengal visit.