West Bengal government under Mamata Banerjee has told a division bench of Calcutta High Court that it will not allow BJP to flag off Rath Yatra in the state. BJP has planned a Rath Yatra in West Bengal not only to unite the Hindu community against the regime of Mamata Banerjee but also to make people aware of the appeasement policies highly skewed towards the Muslim population.
BJP’s Bengal unit has planned three Rath Yatras traveling through all the 194 assembly constituencies of the state in around 40 days. The first Rath Yatra has been scheduled for 7th of December which will start from the Tarapith temple city of Birbhum district; Amit Shah is likely to lead this rally. The second rally will be headed by Yogi Adityanath and is scheduled to begin from Gangasagar, while the third one headed by Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal will begin from Cooch Behar district of West Bengal.
Initially, Mamata Banerjee stated that neither she nor the state will put roadblocks in BJP’s Rath Yatra, instead, TMC would be carrying its own ‘Shanti Yatra’ in response. But it seems the grand talks of Mamata were hollow and due to the fear of BJP’s rising popularity, the West Bengal govt. in an act of u-turn has gone against its own commitment. Feroze Eduljee, one of the advocates for the BJP on Wednesday said, “The advocate general said in the court on Wednesday that BJP leaders did not address the letter to the appropriate authority. He also alleged that the content was not clear”. “The court then remarked that the administration should have guided them to the proper authority and also asked the stand of the government on the matter. The advocate general said he will inform the court of the decision at the first hour on Thursday,” Eduljee added. BJP has already moved to the court against Mamata’s implicit denial for the Rath Yatra.
The BJP state unit filed a petition for a direction from the court to ensure a smooth passage for their procession. PM Narendra Modi is also supposed to address the Rath Yatra at four different places in Durgapur, Malda, Srirampur, and Krishnagar.
BJP has emerged as the biggest challenger to TMC as it has started getting all the ground support in West Bengal and looks set to retain power in centre in the upcoming general elections. The results of state assembly elections in Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, and other states have proved that the saffron party is more than capable of making inroads into alien territories. With Amit Shah and CM Yogi Adityanath acting as its star campaigners, the party looks all set to get more seats in the coming elections.
