The Mamata Banerjee government denied permission to the landing of Congress Supremo Rahul Gandhi’s chopper in Siliguri. The Congress chief is to hold meeting in Siliguri on 16th April ahead of the polls in the state of West Bengal.
The Congress Party has informed that they had already submitted the application for the chopper landing on 7th April. There was no response given by the Mamata Banerjee Government in response to his application. The Congress party was today denied the permission to land their chopper directly in Siliguri. The Bengal Government has allowed the party leader to take road routes to Siliguri but they were not allowed a direct landing in the area. The TMC is has not provided any reason behind the denial of permission to the landing of Gandhi’s chopper.
The Congress party has said that despite an early application, they did not receive any response from the Bengal Government for days. The Mamata Banerjee government denied the landing of the chopper without giving any reasons. The Congress Party has alleged that the Siliguri metropolitan police did not allow the Congress chopper to land in Siliguri. The Congress has also said that after a long gap today the government responded and it denied the landing. The Siliguri meeting is scheduled on 16th of April where the president Rahul Gandhi will be meeting the party workers.
It is important to mention that Congress is the second party after BJP that has alleged the Mamata Banerjee government of denying chopper landing. The Malda district had turned down the BJP request of landing the chopper in Malda. The reasons given by the district authorities were that there was construction going on at the airport. The reports, however, by the India Today in case of Malda, found that no construction materials were found on or near the helipad where the chopper was supposed to land.
Mamata Banerjee has been directly opposing the other parties from smoothly campaigning in the state of Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, initially, denied any alliance with Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She took a dig on Rahul by calling him a kid.
The TMC government is not ready to hold up the democratic values of fair chance and level playing field for all parties contesting. The denial of the chopper landing to both the BJP and Congress is clear indication that Didi is not going to let anyone enter the electoral battle of West Bengal. She is doing her best to restrict the reach of other parties through denial of permissions like landing of choppers. Trinamool Congress is doing all it can to not let West Bengal seats be taken away by other parties. It is therefore creating hurdles for other parties during their campaign.