In a huge blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mamata Banerjee government refused to grant permission for landing the chopper of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in West Bengal. Yogi was supposed to attend two rallies in north Bengal's Balurghat and Raigunj. Plans to attend the rallies were dropped after the state government denied permission.
Unable to reach both the meetings, Yogi, however, made addressed the gatherings through teleconferencing from Lucknow. Agitated over the government's decision, the BJP held a huge demonstration infront of the local collectorate offices earlier in the day and demanded an immediate permission. They have also threatened to call a bandh in Balurghat and Raigunj over the government's refusal to grant permission to Yogi.
"But district officials said that there has been a huge pressure on them not to give permission," Biswapriya Roychowdhury, state BJP vice president and in-charge of the two rallies told THE WEEK.
Over the phone, Yogi made a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress: “Try several times to block our path. But the BJP would come to power in Bengal and defeat the TMC in Lok Sabha election. Nobody can prevent us from winning Bengal.”
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said Yogi would come to Bengal later. The election is yet to be announced but the BJP has already launched a full blown campaign in Bengal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing two mammoth meetings in the state on Saturday.
Sources have confirmed that the BJP would send a detailed report to the Election Commission about the prevention of political acitivities in Bengal. Earlier on Sunday, it has also sent a report to the EC on the lack of security in prime minister's rally in Thakurnagar and the obstruction on people from coming to Modi's rally in Durgapur.
The central BJP leadership would collate all the incidents happened in Bengal regarding the political obstruction and would submit it to the election commission. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has sought a detailed report from the home secretary of Bengal, Atri Bhattacharya.
On Saturday night, a Trinamool Congress delegation met Singh over seeking such reports repeatedly from the state government.
"Home minister reportedly told the delegation that under no circumstance the Modi government would allow any kind of political obstruction or violence in Bengal like what happened during the panchyat elections," said a senior BJP leader.