PM Addresses Bengal Rally Virtually As Chopper Fails To Land Due To Fog

West Bengal Elections:

PM Modi helicopter is expected to return to Kolkata airport after filing for permission to land at the Taherpur helipad due to low visibility this afternoon.

Kolkata:

PM Modi addressed a rally virtually in West Bengal’s Nadia after failing to reach the rally site due to dense fog. His helicopter had to return to Kolkata airport after failing to land at Taherpur helipad due to low visibility this afternoon. It hovered over the helipad for some time and took a U-turn, officials said.

He also apologized to those who attended the rally in Taherpur for not being able to address them personally.

At the rally, the prime minister launched an attack on the ruling Trinamool, accusing Mamata Banerjee-led party of shielding illegal immigrants. The Trinamool backs the infiltrators, and that’s why they are opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, he thundered, appealing to the people to give an opportunity to a two-engine government in the state.

“Let Trinamool oppose me and the BJP as much as it wants, bu t Bengal‘ s progress should not be stopped,” he said, alleging that the ruling dispensation blocks developmental works in the state.

PM Modi reached Kolkata this morning for the Taherpur rally in Nadia district. The plan was to take a chopper to Taherpur, where he was scheduled to launch highway projects in the state. A BJP rally, titled Parivartan Sankalpa Sabha, is scheduled next.

Two separate platforms had been raised for the Prime Minister’s two programs. He is supposed to launch government projects from one dais and move to another for the political rally.

At the Taherpur rally, the PM Modi was expected to kick off BJP’s campaign for the 2026 Bengal elections and counter the Trinamool Congress on the citizenship issue of the Matua community

In the draft electoral rolls published after the enumeration phase, 58,20,899 nominations are now excluded, reducing the electorate to 7.08 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit West Bengal‘s Nadia district on Saturday (December 20, 2025), where he will inaugurate national highway projects and address a public rally, amidst heightened political tensions over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

This would be Mr. Modi’s first visit to the State since the draft SIR rolls were published and the third in the last five months.

PM Modi political observers said, is likely to address the growing unease among the Matua community members post the publication of the draft electoral rolls from his strategically located BJP rally venue in the Taherpur area of Ranaghat, not far from the heartland of the Namasudra Hindu community in adjacent Bongaon.

Mr. Modi is likely to sound the BJP’s bugle for the assembly polls, which are due in the State early next year and chart the course of the party’s agenda for the crucial elections.

“The people of West Bengal are benefiting from numerous pro-people initiatives of the central government. At the same time, they are suffering due to the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) misgovernance in every sector,” the PM posted on X on Friday (December 19) evening while announcing his visit.

The PM Modi visit comes at a time when the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has mounted sustained opposition to the SIR of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise is being carried out in “haste” and that a large number of genuine voters, particularly the refugee Hindus, risk disenfranchisement on its account.

In the draft electoral rolls published after the enumeration phase, 58,20,899 names were excluded, reducing the electorate to 7.08 crore. Around 1.36 crore entries have also been flagged for “logical discrepancies”, while 30 lakh voters have been categorized as unmapped – a significant percentage of whom are likely to be called for verification hearings over the next 45 days.

For Matuas, a Dalit Hindu community that migrated from Bangladesh over decades due to religious persecution, this exercise has revived anxieties about identity and documentation.

Speculations are rife that significant numbers of community members have already been excluded from draft rolls, and many more are likely to follow suit in the final rolls on account of the unavailability of the EC-specified indicative documents they need to produce in the event of receiving hearing notices during the verification phase.

Over the past years, poll results have now indicated that the BJP has gained significant traction among community members, promising them formal Indian citizenship.

BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar, who represents the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, where Taherpur is located, claimed that fear was being deliberately spread among the Matuas about SIR.

“We are hopeful that PM’s message would dispel those fears and canards,” he said.

Stating that people are “aware about which party wants to grant citizenship and which party is opposing that”, the BJP MP said that the Center reserves the option of making further amendments to the Citizenship Amendment Act [CAA] and making the process of granting citizenship easier.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, however, hit back at the saffron camp, claiming that the State has already witnessed too many “empty promises from the Prime Minister” and that Mr. PM Modi visit to the area was a mere “damage control exercise”.

“We have been listening to repeated citizenship promises for the persecuted Bengalis since 2019. Thanks to the complexities that continue to persist over the CAA, none of those promises have been fulfilled so far,” said Mr. Ghosh said.

On top of that, the SIR exercise has added salt to the wounds of the Matua community. The PM Modi realizes that major damage is done, and that’s why he is coming for this visit in the hope of doing some damage control. Like in previous occasions, this time too the PM is arriving empty-handed,” he added.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already led anti-SIR rallies in Nadia and North 24 Parganas, the two adjacent districts which share a border with Bangladesh and have a significant Matua presence.

During his visit, the PM Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for two national highway projects worth around ₹3,200 crore.

He will inaugurate the 66.7-km-long four-laning of the Barajaguli-Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in Nadia district and lay the foundation stone for the four-laning of the 17.6-km-long Barasat-Barajaguli section in North 24 Parganas district.

The projects are expected to serve as a vital connecting link between Kolkata and Siliguri, boosting trade, tourism and economic activity across the southern and northern parts of the State, officials said.

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