Kolkata: Kolkata airport has witnessed an unprecedented number of flights in just over a fortnight starting from the election campaign hitting a fever pitch between the first and second phase of elections in Bengal and Saturday’s oath-taking ceremony that was attended by the Prime Minister, home minister, defence minister and chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states. Kolkata airport officials said at least 50 private flights have operated to Kolkata during this period.“On Friday and Saturday, nine private aircraft flew in dignitaries for the mega-event at the Brigade Parade Ground. This is in addition to the special Indian Air Force aircraft in which PM Narendra Modi arrived. Defence minister Rajnath Singh touched down in a BSF aircraft. Kolkata airport has not handled so many dignitaries on a single day in a long time,” an airport official said.While Union Home minister Amit Shah and Odisha CM Mohan Charan were the first to arrive on Thursday, 15 dignitaries arrived on Friday. Four VIPs arrived on Saturday apart from the PM, who reached Kolkata in the special IAF flight.Among those who arrived for the oath-taking ceremony a day earlier were Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Tripura CM Manik Saha, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio, Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde, MP deputy CM Rajendra Shukla and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.The dignitaries who arrived on Saturday included Bihar CM Samrat Choudhary, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, Goa deputy CM Pramod Sawant and Union minister of civil aviation Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu.Among the business jets used to ferry VIPs on Friday and Saturday were Dassault Falcon aircraft, two Cessna Citation planes and four Embraer jets.Between April 25 and 28, there were 40 additional flights that were used by BJP, TMC and Congress leaders in the campaign for the second phase of the elections. Leaders of both BJP and TMC, including PM Modi, Amit Shah, Mamata Banerjee, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, extensively campaigned using private flights. They also used private charters in the first phase along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav.
