Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will be in Siliguri on a two-day visit on Tuesday, three days after Prime Minister Modi's much-publicised March 9 visit.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, she will meet representatives of different communities and members of the development boards of the hills, a move being seen as a plan to consolidate the Trinamul-Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha support base for the Darjeeling seat where the BJP has won thrice since 2009.

Mamata will also attend a public service distribution programme in Fulbari, which is on the southern outskirts of Siliguri and is under the Jalpaiguri parliamentary seat. In north Bengal, Trinamul couldn’t win a single of the eight Lok Sabha seat in 2009. While the BJP won seven, Congress won the Malda south seat.

“On Tuesday, the chief minister will land in Bagdogra. She will then reach Dinabandhu Mancha in the city and will hold a meeting with members of different development boards of the communities in the hill regions of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts,” said a source.

From there, she will move to Uttarkanya, the state’s branch secretariat in the southern part of Siliguri.

“On Wednesday, she will attend a government function and head for Calcutta,” the source added.

On January 28, Mamata had attended a similar event at the same venue.

Political observers opined that Mamata is focusing on north Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a region where Trinamul has underperformed consistently in major polls.

“However, in recent elections of local bodies held after 2021 and Dhupguri Assembly bypoll, Trinamul performed well. Also, in the hills, the BGPM, its ally, won in GTA and rural polls. This changed situation seems to have prompted Trinamul to put efforts to win Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal, especially the Darjeeling seat where BJP has won thrice since 2009,” said an observer.