Prime MinisterNarendra Modion Tuesday, April 28, shared a bunch of pictures in which he is seen playing football with youngsters in Sikkim’s Gangtok. PM Modi’s soccer session with boys and girls came after intense campaign for the second phase of theWest Bengal assembly elections. While PM Modi called it “energising”, some drew a link to the neighbouring state, where football is more than just a sport.
PM Modi, who is on a two-day tour of the Himalayan state to attend celebrations marking 50 years of statehood, played football with some boys and girls here on Tuesday morning.
"Nothing like playing some football with my young friends in Sikkim on a lovely Gangtok morning! Clearly, an energising football session with these youngsters!" the PM said on X.
The timing of the football match caught people’s attention as in Sikkim’s neighbouring state, West Bengal, football is way more than just a sport. Football holds a unique emotional connect in Bengal, often intertwined with identity and local pride.
During the last assembly election, Trinamool Congress leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s image of throwing a football at a rally amid chants of ‘Khela Hobe’ had gone viral.
The second phase of voting for the West Bengal assembly elections will be held on Wednesday, April 29. In the first phase, polling was held for 152 seats across 16 districts on April 23. A voter turnout of 93.19 per cent, the highest in the state's history, was recorded.
Among the prominent candidates contesting in this phase are Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur, state ministers Sujit Bose in Bidhannagar, Firhad Hakim in Kolkata Port, Jyoti Priya Mallick in Habra, Bratya Basu in Dum Dum and Sovandeb Chattopadhyay in Ballygunge, and BJP's Arjun Singh in Noapara, Swapan Dasgupta in Rashbehari and Rudranil Ghosh in Shibpur.
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Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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