New Delhi: Ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections 2021, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda will launch the party’s ‘Rath Yatra’ in the state on Saturday. Several senior BJP leaders are scheduled to arrive in West Bengal during the month-long campaign, set to start from the Nadia district of the state. Besides, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to inaugurate two of the five proposed yatras later this month.

As per the sources, the BJP chief will kick off the ‘Rath Yatra’ also known as ‘Parivartan Yatra’ from Chatir math Ground in Nadia district’s Nabadwip police station area. Before that, he will hold a roadshow from Foara More to Rabindranath Tagore Statue in Malda district, following which he will visit the visit Sri Gauranga Janmasthan Ashram at Nabadwip.

BJP’s Rath Yatra Plan

The first rath yatra will be launched today from Nabadwip. On Feb 8, the other two rath yatras will be launched from Cooch Behar in north Bengal and Kakdwip in south Bengal.

The last two will be launched from Jhargram and Tarapith in south Bengal on February 9.

“Along with each rath yatra, multiple padayatras will be organised to bolster the campaign ahead of the assembly elections and boost the morale of the party workers and supporters. It will be a mega outreach programme,” a BJP leader told Hindustan Times.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021

As per the officials in EC, West Bengal Assembly elections can be held in March-April and poll schedule could be announced any time in February. Notably, the tenure of the current Mamata-led TMC government will end on May 30.

The Election Commission has decided to hold Bengal elections in seven-eight phases due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has created havoc across the country. In 2016, poll panel had conducted Vidhan Sabha Chunav in six phases from April 4-May 5.

What happened in 2016?

In the 2016 West Bengal elections, All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee had registered a thumping victory by winning 211 seats out of 295 seats

The BJP had put up a spirited show in 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections and had played spoilsport for the opposition Left Front-Congress alliance in more than 70 seats.  In this Assembly polls, BJP had not only garnered around 56 lakh votes, up from 19.5 lakh in 2011, it had also made its presence felt in 262 out of 294 Assembly segments where the saffron party polled more than 10,000 votes.