4 min readKolkataMar 22, 2026 06:56 AM IST West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will start campaigning for the upcoming Assembly elections from North Bengal on March 24 (Tuesday) while her nephew and party’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee will start with election rallies in southern districts, it is learnt. The move is aimed at simultaneously connecting with voters in the state’s two different political battlegrounds. On March 24, the CM will hold a mega rally at Alipurduar Parade Ground before addressing meetings at Matigara in Darjeeling district and Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri the same day. The move is being seen as an attempt by the TMC leadership to wrest back political ground in the northern belt, where the BJP had made deep inroads in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and retained a strong presence through the 2021 Assembly elections. “The CM herself leading the charge from Alipurduar sends a message that the party is taking the BJP’s challenge in north Bengal seriously,” a senior TMC leader said. The CM will leave for north Bengal after addressing a …