The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) colossal plan for a rath-yatra in December spanning over a month is still awaiting permission from the state government.
The rath yatras, aimed at “restoring democracy”, plans to cover all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, and it is the BJP’s way of garnering support from all over the state. But without approval from the West Bengal government, the entire affair now hangs in the balance.
The first letter of permission was written to the state government on October 29, but there was no reply, say BJP leaders. A second letter was forwarded after that, which too did not get any reply from the home department. BJP leaders allege that the Bengal government is deliberately delaying matters and may not provide clearance at all.
The BJP’s Bengal unit have now moved Calcutta High Court on this issue. A hearing is expected on Monday or Tuesday.
The rath is scheduled to pass through all the Lok Sabha constituencies of north and south Bengal in three phases, after being flagged off on December 7, 9 and 14. According to the plan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to join four public meetings as part of the rath-yatra. Three of these will be in the districts during the course of the yatra, while the fourth one will be in Kolkata marking its conclusion.
BJP national president Amit Shah will be flag off rath–yatra. Several top national leaders of the BJP, including chief ministers of many states will be part of the grand affair. The rallies will start from north Bengal’s Cooch Behar, South 24 Parganas district’s Gangasagar and Birbhum’s Tarapith.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier criticised BJP’s proposed rath yatra calling this a “show-off”.
Dilip Ghosh, the West Bengal BJP president has said that if the TMC tries to upset the rath-yatra, people will come out in protest as it is meant to restore the democracy in Bengal. Earlier, Locket Chatterjee had made a controversial statement that anyone trying to stop the rath-yatra would get crushed under the wheels of the chariot.
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