Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally at Cooch Behar district in West Bengal on Thursday, his first public meeting in the eastern state since the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

Modi is scheduled to address the rally at Rash Mela grounds around 3.30 pm.

“I look forward to being among the people of Cooch Behar to address a @BJP4Bengal rally later today at around 3:30 PM. The people there have been greatly supportive of our development agenda and I am confident they will again place their faith in the BJP,” the PM said in a post on X.

The Cooch Behar constituency is gearing up for a fiery Lok Sabha campaign on Thursday, with back-to-back rallies by Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee is scheduled to speak at a rally in Cooch Behar around noon. The venues of Banerjee’s public meeting and the PM’s rally are about 30 km apart.

The West Bengal Police have placed a multi-tier security cover at the venue and its surroundings ahead of two mega rallies in the district.

The Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency, which recently witnessed clashes between supporters of sitting BJP MP and Union minister Nisith Pramanik and TMC leader Udayan Guha, has now become a battleground of prestige, with both parties leaving no stone unturned to secure victory.

Renominated as a Lok Sabha candidate, Pramanik faces Jagadish Barma Basunia, the TMC's nominee representing the Rajbanshi community and the sitting MLA of Sitai, as his primary opponent this time.

Before the EC's announcement, the PM had addressed four rallies in West Bengal – in Hooghly, Krishnanagar, Barasat and Siliguri between March 1 and March 9.

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