Moinaguri, Amid escalating tensions with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a rally in West Bengal today, giving a fresh thrust to the BJP’s campaign blitzkrieg ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The rally will be PM Modi’s third in the state in a week. PM Modi’s visit to the state comes amid tensions between the Centre and Mamata Banerjee’s government over CBI investigations on a senior police officer in the state.

Meanwhile, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will kick off his poll campaigning in Madhya Pradesh with a farmers’ rally. Mr Gandhi is expected to announce a number of sops in the agricultural sector during the ‘Kisan Abhar’ rally.

Both the BJP and Congress have raised their poll pitch for the Lok Sabha elections, due in May. “I have a very special connection with North Bengal. This connection is of tea. You people grow tea, I make tea,” says Prime Minister Narendra Modi in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri.

PM announces benefits for tea plantation workers. While speaking at the rally, PM Modi announced that workers employed in tea plantation fields will now be entitled to a pension. This scheme would benefit over 40 crore workers in the unorganized sector.

The law and order situation in North Bengal has worsened over the years. Industries were not developed, youth are migrating, and projects of schemes are stalled, but all this doesn’t bother the West Bengal government.

People in Jalpaiguri will no longer have to go to Kolkata for legal help. They will now get that facilities right here.

You people grow tea… I make tea. And it often makes me wonder… Why does Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is not fond of the chaiwallahs’.

Narendra Modi inaugurates various developmental programmes in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri.