Calling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) upcoming 40-day rath yatra in West Bengal as Ravan Yatra, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her party workers to carry out a “purification drive” along the rathyatra routes taken. She said it was a political gimmick that was best ignored.
“I have asked my party members to conduct a purification drive along the way,” Banerjee said. There will be counter rallies, meetings and processions at every place the BJP’s chariots pass in order to “cleanse” these places. “It’s a Ravan Yatra with luxuries. Ravan brings negative energy,” she said.
The BJP has been planning to kickstart its 2019 poll campaign right from December this year through its grand rath yatras covering all 42 constituencies in the state. But the Mamata Banerjee government hasn’t yet responded to the BJP’s application for permission, prompting the BJP chief Dilip Ghosh to say that his party might move court.
The first rath yatra will be taken out on December 5, to be flagged off by BJP national president Amit Shah, from Birbhum’s Tarapith. The second one will start from Cooch Behar district on December 7. The third rathyatra will start from Kakdwip of South 24 Parganas district on December 9.
Earlier BJP’s West Bengal Mahila Morcha president Locket Chatterjee said that anyone trying to disrupt and stop the party’s “rath yatra” will get crushed under its wheels.
