Kolkata: DEC-20, West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be attending the ‘Ek Lakh Gita Path’ programmed in Kolkata, which calls for about 1 lakh people to recite the Bhagavad Gita aloud together.
Mr. Majumdar explained, ‘We invited PM Modi, but he communicated to me yesterday that because of previous official business, it is not possible for him to attend. But still, my prime minister has sent his best wishes!’
The event will be held at the Brigade Parade Ground in the city. Mr. Majumdar says that it is a combined effort of various religious groups and remains strictly apolitical as well.
The invitation has also been extended to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Governor C. V. Ananda Bose, and other luminaries of the state.
Mr. Majumdar added, “This event is in no way related to the BJP. We are not organizers.”
The organizing committee’s vice-president, Srimant Nirgunanada Brahmachari said that an invitation has been sent to Ms. Banerjee and if there are protocol problems the same could be extended again.
At a recent press conference, Srimant Nirgunanada Brahmachari said as sadhus: “We don’t know all the official procedures for inviting high-profile guests like the CM.”
But the opposition Trinamool Congress says this programme is carefully planned with an eye to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP had won 18 of the state’s 42 seats in that year’s poll to Lok Sabha, while the tally for the TMC fell to 22. The Congress won two seat.