In a huge blow to TMC’s vindictive politics in West Bengal ahead of the all-important assembly elections early next year, the Supreme Court of India, while hearing the pleas of five BJP leaders, has directed the Mamata Banerjee-government to ensure that no coercive steps are taken against them until the next hearing, which is in the second week of January. With a mass exodus of sorts being observed from the TMC, the “ma, mati, manush” party is visibly getting worked up, due to which BJP leaders might likely be targeted under fabricated cases by the state administration.
Therefore, senior BJP leaders, who are crucial to the saffron party’s campaign and organisation in Bengal needed to seek protection for themselves. BJP’s National Vice President Mukul Roy, MPs Kailash Vijayvargiya, Arjun Singh and two other BJP leaders had moved the Supreme Court to seek a stay on the West Bengal administration’s vendetta-laced pursuit of them in mostly false criminal cases.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, heard the pleas filed by the West Bengal BJP leaders alleging “false FIRs” against them by the state police. The petitioners have alleged that the state govt was foisting criminal cases to deter them from carrying out political activities. Thereafter, the top court issued a notice to the West Bengal government and ordered that no coercive action should be taken against the BJP leaders.
The petitioners have alleged before the Supreme Court that the Mamata Banerjee government has “foisted false cases (against them) and unleashed a terror raj in the state.”
After the exit of Suvendu Adhikari from the Trinamool Congress, the incumbent party of Bengal is trying desperately to somehow subvert the activities of the BJP. In fact, Adhikari had himself written to the State Governor, requesting him to ensure that the state police doesn’t implicate him in politically motivated cases.
Read more: Suvendu Adhikari resigns and triggers an exodus of top TMC leaders. Mamata watches helplessly
“Surely political bonhomie with the ruling party or dispensation cannot be essential requisite for enjoying liberty and human rights, as is the situation presently,” Adhikari said in his letter to the Governor. Jagdeep Dhankhar, acting on the request of Adhikari wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging her to ensure that the former TMC heavyweight is not implicated in false cases.
“Please take urgent note and all expected measures on the representation to me from former minister Suvendu Adhikari, seeking my intervention ‘so that police and administration apparatus in the state is dissuaded from implicating’ him and his associate followers ‘in criminal cases out of political motivation and vendetta,” Governor Dhakhar’s letter to Banerjee read.
The TMC regime is increasingly being made to feel the heat in the run-up to the assembly elections early next year. Ideally, the TMC would want to be given a free hand at this juncture, however, the BJP is ensuring that the incumbent party’s legroom is incredibly reduced at a time when its irreversible political rout is being scripted.