Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived the ‘United India’ rally venue much before schedule as the beats of dhamsa-madol are reverberating in the air at Brigade Parade Ground ahead of the mega rally.
“ Brigade Parade Ground is filling up fast. It is certain that lakhs who have set out for the venue will not be able to enter. The crowd will surpass all earlier records, ” said party leader Arup Roy and added that the party is making all efforts to make the event a grand success.
A thick security blanket has been thrown on the sprawling Brigade Parade Ground – the venue for the mega rally – to prevent any untoward incident.
All the roads leading to the Brigade Parade ground are clogged with processions and vehicles carrying people to the rally.
As many as 10,000 police personnel have been deployed and around 400 police pickets set up to ensure foolproof security.
Policemen in plain clothes, personnel of the Rapid Action Force and Quick Response Team have been deployed at the rally venue.
More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie, three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and H D Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang will attend the meeting, TMC sources said.
Most of them have already arrived in the city.
Barring the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha, the TRS of Telengana and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, all anti-NDA parties are taking part in the rally, which, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), said will sound the “death knell” for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, continuing his attack on the Mamata government, BJP MP Babul Supriyo said, “The TMC has a large fund base for the rally but not for the state? Kolkata will witness a show of hypocrisy today.”
“ By putting the traffic standstill & harassing the general public, TMC wants to stand up for the state’s welfare? How ironical! I urge all to share their today’s traffic woes, ” he tweeted.(UNI)