Modi Takes Boat Ride on Hooghly in Kolkata Campaign

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a boat ride on the Hooghly River in Kolkata on April 24, 2026, offering prayers to the Ganga and interacting with local boatmen and morning walkers during an early morning visit amid the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections campaign.

The outing began around 7 a.m. at Princep Ghat, where Modi arrived after staying overnight in the city following a roadshow from Howrah to Kolkata the previous evening. He rented a wooden boat and spent about an hour navigating the waterway, a major distributary of the Ganges. During the ride, Modi photographed the river and nearby landmarks, including the Howrah Bridge and Vidyasagar Setu, which he had crossed by road just a day earlier. Local boatman Gourango Biswas, who ferried the prime minister, described the encounter as unexpected. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly came, rented the boat, and went for a ride," Biswas said, noting that Modi asked for his name, hugged him upon returning to shore, and paid 1,000 rupees for the trip.

Modi also took a brief morning walk along the riverbank before boarding, meeting residents and sailors. Another local, Mohmad Sheikh Iftekar, observed the prime minister's...