The BJP’s run with low attendance at rallies of its star campaigners persisted on Tuesday and this time, the poor turnout was at the meeting of the party’s “poster boy” and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who addressed two gatherings in Purulia and Bankura.

Union home minister had not attended a rally in Jhargram on Monday because of a snag in his chopper. But BJP insiders said Shah had been put off by low footfall and decided to address the gathering virtually from Kharagpur.

Adityanath, who addressed the rallies in Purulia’s Balarampur and in Bankura’s Raipur on Tuesday, had very few people turning up to hear him and chief minister Mamata Banerjee did not miss out on the opportunity to snub her rival when she quipped that even money was not helping the BJP get people.

“Even after giving money, the BJP is unable to bring people to its rallies…What can I do if people don’t come to your meetings. People are not with you because you tortured farmers, Dalits and people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Will you kill me because the turnout at your meetings is very low?” asked Mamata while addressing a well-attended rally in Bankura’s Mejia.

Sources said the BJP leadership had asked local leaders in Purulia’s Balarampur to find out the reason for such a low turnout as the Assembly segment is one of those in the Jungle Mahal where the party had a very strong base.

BJP leaders said they had set a target to bring over 15,000 people but the approximate turnout was not more than 4,000.

“A large number of people voted for the BJP after the panchayat polls in 2018 and in the last Lok Sabha elections, the mandate for the BJP in the Assembly segment was huge. But after voting for the party, people did not get anything, apart from the politics of religion. So, people are not coming to BJP rallies,” said Nabendu Mahali, a Trinamul general secretary in Purulia.

BJP leaders in Balarampur, however, claimed that they had met the target given the hot conditions and time of the meeting.

“The meeting time was 11am and it is the time when most people are at work. However, we had set a target of 15,000 people and managed to cross it,” said Gopal Kataruka, a BJP leader in Balarampur.

Countering the claim of low footfall at Adityanath’s rallies, a BJP leader in Bankura said that social media was full of pictures of a sparsely attended rally of Mamata Banerjee at Shaltora on Tuesday. Trinamul leaders, however, said the pictures of the rally being circulated by the BJP were from a time before Mamata had arrived.

A BJP insider, however, said: “The party has asked the leaders to look into the reason for the low footfall. One reason could be the problem of language. The people in these areas are not used to listening to speeches in Hindi and that is playing a damper.”

In Bankura’s Raipur, BJP supporters started to leave the ground when Adityanath began to speak around 1.30pm.

“The turnout in Yogiji’s rally was very low in Raipur and it was because of the scorching sun. People did not come and started leaving the place to find a shade under a tree,” said a BJP leader in Bankura.

Trinamul leaders, however, did not leave the chance to criticise the BJP for failing to get people to their shows. “The turnout will drop every day. People are not interested in BJP’s leaders coming from outside the state as they can’t understand what they are saying,” said Dilip Agrawal, the Trinamul spokesperson in Bankura.

The presence of BJP national president J.P. Nadda did not attract much crowd at his road show in Bankura's Bishnupur and later at the rally in the district’s Kotulpur.

However, BJP leaders said the turnout at Nadda’s rally and the propaganda of low turnout was a Trinamul ploy.

“We had concentrated on Naddaji programme on Tuesday and Yogiji’s meeting was for a single constituency,” said a BJP leader.

The issue of low turnout had cropped up during Shah’s unscheduled meeting with state leaders in Calcutta late on Monday night.

A BJP leader said Shah was unhappy with the low turnout at his rallies in Jhargram and Bankura on Monday.

“Amitji wanted to know the reason behind the low turnout. He has asked the leaders to find out the real reason behind people not turning up in adequate numbers,” the source added.