Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Kolkata in separate planes on Sunday evening to attend the Combined Commanders’ Conference of the armed forces, which begins on Monday.
PM Modi will inaugurate the three-day conference at the Eastern Command headquarters at Vijay Durg, which was earlier called Fort William. He will be attending the conference for around four hours on Monday morning and leave for Purnea in Bihar, Army officials said.
National security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval will also attend the conference where the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force will be present.
The conference will focus on changing strategic scenarios and operational preparedness, officials said.
Modi, who came from Jorhat in Assam, went to Raj Bhawan in Kolkata in the evening.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state leaders said Modi will not be attending any party or public event during this visit.
“PM Modi has come to attend an important government programme and yet he stopped his convoy for some time to wave at BJP workers who gathered near the airport to see him,” Union minister of state and former Bengal BJP unit president Sukanta Majumdar, who greeted the PM, said.
This is Modi’s second visit to Bengal in less than a month.
{{/usCountry}}This is Modi’s second visit to Bengal in less than a month.
{{/usCountry}}He came to North 24 Parganas district near Kolkata on August 22 to inaugurate three new routes of the Kolkata metro railway project and address a BJP rally. In his 40-minute speech at the rally, Modi urged people of Bengal to oust the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the 2026 assembly polls and focused on cross-border infiltration without mentioning any neighbouring country.