Kolkata, April 21 (IANS): The election rally of BJP that was supposed to be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday afternoon, has been cancelled as the chopper that was to take him to Darjeeling was not able to land there because of bad weather.

Instead, the Home Minister sent an audio message which was played by BJP candidate and sitting MP from Darjeeling Raju Bista, at the rally where thousands of people were waiting to hear the Union Home Minister.

“I am extremely sad that I could not reach Darjeeling. I reached Siliguri last evening. But because of the bad weather, the chopper was unable to reach there,” the Home Minister said in his video message.

Thereafter, he appealed to the people of Darjeeling to re-elect Bista from the constituency. “Only BJP can restore peace in the hills. To do that, my appeal to all of you is to elect Bista for the second time and make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time,” Shah said.

Darjeeling is one of the three constituencies in West Bengal which is going to polls in the second phase on April 26.

Later, speaking to media persons, Bista said that as scheduled, the Union Home Minister will visit West Bengal again on April 23. “I will make an attempt so that he comes to Darjeeling once on that day. But I will not insist much on that since that would mean depriving other party candidates to an extent. I am confident that the people of Darjeeling will be with BJP this time as well,” Bista said.