PM Narendra Modi to address rally in Bengal`s Midnapore on July 16

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in West Bengal's Midnapore town on Monday, a BJP leader said on Sunday.

The rally, to be held on the Midnapore College grounds in the afternoon, would be the Prime Minister's first visit to the state this year. "It is going to be a historic gathering. Modi ji`s impending visit has created a lot of excitement and enthusiasm among party activists and leaders here," BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.

Modi will reach Midnapore around 12.30 p.m. and head straight to the rally ground. Hailing the Centre`s decision to increase the minimum support price of 14 kharif (summer) crops for the 2018-19 marketing season, Sinha said it would benefit farmers across the country.

BJP chief Amit Shah had addressed a rally in Purulia district last month, wherein he claimed that his party would win more than 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. Meanwhile, the BJP leadership accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of threatening private bus operators in many districts not to provide vehicles to ferry BJP activists to the Monday rally. 

The Trinamool Congress denied the charge.