Mamata to skip Modi's Haldia event after last month's 'humiliation'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit West Bengal on Sunday to launch key infrastructure projects, however, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to attend the event. Sunday's trip would be Modi's second visit to the poll-bound state this year. Banerjee reportedly is wary of being humiliated after she was recently heckled at another event in Kolkata last month.
Modi to visit both Assam, West Bengal today
Modi will visit both West Bengal and Assam on Sunday to inaugurate a host of development projects in both states. The two states are expected to go to poll in April-May. Modi will inaugurate an LPG import terminal built by the state-run BPCL in Haldia. The PM's office said this will cater to the growing demand for LPG in West Bengal and Northeast India.
'Leaving for Assam and West Bengal,' Modi tweeted this morning
Banerjee to skip event after being heckled last month
Banerjee has decided to skip the event after her "humiliation" at an event organized in Kolkata on the 124th birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose on January 23, sources in Banerjee's Trinamool Congress told CNN-News18. Reportedly, the sources said that since Modi supporters did not even spare an event for Bose to score political points, there was no chance they would behave on Sunday.
BJP supporters had heckled Banerjee with 'Jai Shree Ram' chants
In Modi's presence, Banerjee was heckled by supporters of the PM's Bharatiya Janata Party with chants of "Jai Shree Ram" at the event. Speaking at the event, Banerjee had called for decorum and discipline. She had said, "This is not a political program. You cannot invite people here and insult them. I am invited and humiliated. In protest, I am not saying anything."
Which projects will Modi launch in Bengal?
During the state visit, apart from the LPG import terminal, PM Modi will also dedicate to the nation the Dobhi-Durgapur Natural Gas Pipeline section of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project and a 4-lane ROB-cum-flyover at Ranichak, Haldia on National Highway 41. Further, the PM will lay the foundation stone of the second catalytic-isodewaxing unit of Haldia Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
