BJP takes ‘Save Democracy’ campaign to Bhagalpur and Kolkata as civic polls and SIR row looms

BJP national president Nitin Nabin is leading two padyatras today under the party’s “Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao” campaign, one in Bhagalpur, Bihar, and the other in Kolkata. The marches form part of the party’s response to what it calls Opposition “misinformation, disinformation and organised anarchy ” coming a day after the INDIA bloc’s large rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan that centred on allegations of “vote chori.”

In Bhagalpur the procession is scheduled to begin around 11 am from Lajpat Park and conclude at Seva Jyoti Chowk by 12:30 pm. In Kolkata it is set to start at 3 pm from College Street and end at Dharmatala around 5:30 pm. Nabin is expected to be joined in the West Bengal capital by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya.

Party leader Bhola Sonkar has projected a turnout of more than 20,000 for the Kolkata march. Kolkata Police have already diverted traffic around College Street, Central Avenue, Bowbazar and the approaches to Dharmatala, erecting barricades along the route. Commuters have been advised to use the Metro on what is the first working day of the week.

The immediate backdrop in Bengal is the forthcoming Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporation elections. Party sources say Nabin’s visit will focus on election strategy, candidate selection and organisational preparations. The BJP, now in power in the state, intends to contest the civic polls with the same intensity it brought to this year’s Assembly elections.

In Bihar the party is extending an effort that already saw Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and state BJP president Sanjay Saraogi lead a padyatra in Patna on 28 October. Nabin, a Bihar native and the youngest national president in the party’s history, is taking the campaign outside the capital.

Both states were among the first to undergo the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The Opposition’s “vote chori” charge is rooted in that exercise. Critics, including activist Yogendra Yadav, have argued that SIR disproportionately targeted Bengal, with Bihar used as a testing ground.

The BJP rejects the allegation outright, insisting the Opposition is spreading falsehoods to explain electoral setbacks. The Election Commission has maintained that the process is designed to ensure clean and accurate rolls.

The two marches sit within a broader national drive. Nabin himself led a procession through Delhi’s Chandni Chowk on 28 October. Union ministers and BJP-ruled state chief ministers have been deployed across the country, while the party’s youth wing launched a parallel outreach campaign on 25 October that runs until the end of November.

At Ramlila Maidan on 1 November, Opposition leaders demanded the BJP’s removal from power. Rahul Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of “treason” and predicted he would one day be removed and jailed.

The BJP has since accused the Congress of selective outrage, with Nabin noting in Rohtak on Sunday that the party should have apologised for the 1984 riots rather than protest on their anniversary.