BJP President Amit Shah is set to kick off three rath yatras in Bengal on December 5, 7 and 9, which will cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state before converging in Kolkata in the second week of January
Mamata Banerjee
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday accused the West Bengal government of deliberately delaying permission to the party's proposed rath yatras in the state, threatening to move the court if the sanction did not come by.
BJP President Amit Shah is set to kick off three rath yatras in Bengal on December 5, 7 and 9, which will cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state before converging in Kolkata in the second week of January.
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"We have roughly chalked out the route of the rath yatras and given to the administrative officials in writing. However, they have not yet responded to our request for permission. We feel that if the process is further delayed, there won't be any time left to make any adjustments. So, we will move the court if the permission is not given," West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh told reporters here.
"For the last few years, we have had to seek permission from the court for conducting BJP functions in the state. Be it Amit Shah's meeting in the Victoria House or RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's rally, the state government did not give permission for any major event. So we are mentally prepared for that (going to court)," he said.
He termed the rath yatras in Bengal as "rallies to save and reinstate democracy in the state".
"The Trinamool Congress government is scared of the BJP. When CPI-M takes out a rally, the Bengal government grants permission, but when the BJP plans a programme, they try to stop it by any means," Ghosh alleged.
"It is the government's responsibility to ensure that political programmes are conducted properly. It is not the job of the police to try and impede it. If they try to stop us, we will exercise our right to conduct the programme. The yatras will take place on scheduled dates through scheduled routes," he added.
The first rath yatra is scheduled to commence from Bengal's temple town Tarapith on December 5. The other two would start from north Bengal's Cooch Behar and south Bengal's Namkhana on December 7 and 9.
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