On Christmas eve, PM Modi likely to attend 'Ek Lakh Gita Path' event in Kolkata

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend a programme in Kolkata in December in which about 1 lakh people will chant Bhagavad Gita together, the BJP's West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar said on Monday.

The programme, 'Ek Lakh Gita Path', will be held at the Brigade Parade Ground in the heart of the city on December 24, he told PTI.

"We have invited PM Modi to attend the program, and he has accepted our invitation. One lakh people will recite Bhagavad Gita together on that day," he said.

Several religious groups have come together to organise the massive event, he added.

"It will be an apolitical programme," Majumdar claimed, adding that invitations will also be sent to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Governor CV Ananda Bose and other noted personalities of the state.

"This event has nothing to do with the BJP, and we are not organising it," he said.

The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, claimed that the programme was strategically organised, with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"As the Lok Sabha elections are approaching, it is quite natural that BJP leaders would be visiting the state more frequently. We have seen this trend ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and the assembly polls of 2021. But, this would not yield any result," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured 18 out of 42 seats in the state, while the TMC's tally decreased to 22. The Congress won two seats.