Kolkata, Mar 28 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s arrival in Kolkata was delayed by two hours after a severe thunderstorm lashed the city and its outskirts around Friday midnight.
According to airport sources, the special aircraft carrying the home minister from Delhi was scheduled to land at 11:46 pm. However, the plane was forced to hover over the airspace of the neighbouring Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts as a ‘nor’wester’ triggered lightning and heavy rain.
The aircraft landed at 1:46 am on Saturday. Shah left the airport in a convoy at 2 am for a city hotel, where he was received by senior state BJP leaders.
A senior party leader said Shah had departed from Delhi at 10:46 pm.
The weather-induced delay comes a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s flight from Andal faced similar conditions. On March 26, her aircraft was unable to land at the Kolkata airport for an hour due to a thunderstorm before weather conditions improved.
On Saturday afternoon, Shah is expected to release a ‘charge sheet’ against the Trinamool Congress government at a hotel in New Town. The document is a compilation of the BJP’s allegations against the TMC ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.
Shah has made frequent visits to West Bengal over the past two months to lead organisational meetings, public rallies, and outreach programmes, including the ‘Poriborton Yatra’, to strengthen the party’s grassroots network and poll strategy. PTI SUS AKY
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