Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will walk two “extra” kilometres beyond her planned road show route on Tuesday to pay her “tribute” to a statue of Rabindranath Tagore here, sources close to the ruling party said.
Despite her original plan to march on the stretch covered by Union home minister Amit Shah last Sunday — from Dak Bungalow ground to Chowrasta crossing in Bolpur town — Mamata reportedly made a change in the eleventh hour to include a “traditional Bengali flourish”, sources said.
“She was to cover around 1.4km initially but after this rescheduling, it will be around 3.4 km,” said a police source.
Now, Mamata will start her march from Tourist Lodge crossing some 500 metres off Dak Bungalow grounds and end at Tagore’s statue at Jambuni via Chowrasta. The Trinamul chief will also address a gathering from a dais behind the statue of Tagore at Jambuni.
“The route was changed after a meeting with top Trinamul leaders on Saturday evening. The chief minister wanted to garland a Tagore statue after finishing her march. As there is no statue of Tagore at Chowrasta, she would walk 2km more for her tribute,” said a senior Trinamul leader.
Mamata will reach Bolpur on Monday afternoon and attend a news meet followed by an administrative review meeting.
The mega march starts on Tuesday afternoon.
The BJP claimed Shah’s road show was a “big success”.
Shah visited sites associated with some of Bengal’s foremost icons including Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and Khudiram Bose during his two-day visit to the state last weekend to try and establish the saffron camp’s connect with Bengali culture and counter the Trinamul’s bohiragawto (outsider) allegations.
Abhijit Sinha, a senior Trinamul leader in Birbhum, said “There is no need (for Trinamul) to learn how to respect Tagore from the BJP.”
Mamata in her speech is also likely to address the “attack” by Visva-Bharati and its vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, who allegedly has saffron leanings, on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen over a land controversy. “She is very angry with the varsity’s attack on Sen,” said a Trinamul leader.
