Kolkata/IBNS/UNI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will skip the mass recitation of the Bhagavad Gita at the Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata on Sunday due to other preoccupations, West Bengal Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said on Wednesday.

Modi was earlier scheduled to attend the programme, where, the organisers claimed, some 100,000 people would chant the sacred text.

The sacred event is being organised by the ‘Lokkho Konthe Gitapath Committee’ (Committee on Recitation of the Gita by 100,000 People), an association of three religious organisations.

The committee members had gone to New Delhi to invite the PM to the programme which is being held on Christmas Eve.

"Yes. The PM showed his keenness to attend the mass recitation of the Gita when the organisers, along with the BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, had gone to New Delhi to invite him.

"However, the PMO on Wednesday informed the hosts that the PM has very urgent preoccupation on the day and can not make it on December 24," Adhikari told reporters.

Adhikari said since the programme is being organised by the ‘Lokkho Konthe Gitapath Committee’, and is supported by different organisations, all state BJP leaders will attend the programme as volunteers but will not share the main stage.