A Calcutta High Court division bench on Friday accepted the BJP’s appeal against Thursday’s single bench order refusing permission to hold a ‘rath yatra’ in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal.
Collage of Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (Photo: Facebook)
Party President Amit Shah on Friday claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was “scared” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and therefore attempted to stop a ‘rath yatras’ supposed to be held in the state.
Shah said a democratic process has been suppressed in West Bengal, with the misuse of power.
“The CM is following this trend. This is non-democratic,” Amit Shah said while addressing a press conference in Delhi.
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“She (Mamata Banerjee) is scared that if BJP takes out all these three rallies in the state of West Bengal and assemble in Kolkata then the foundation of a complete change will be laid down. So she attempted to stop all these yatras,” he added.
A Calcutta High Court division bench on Friday accepted the BJP’s appeal against Thursday’s single bench order refusing permission to hold a ‘rath yatra’ in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal over fears it may stoke communal tensions.
A single judge bench had put on hold Friday’s ‘rath yatra’ in Cooch Behar and all subsequent rallies till the next hearing on January 9.
The party has challenged the single-bench order of the Calcutta HC before a division bench.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said that if required, the party will approach the Supreme Court to hold a ‘Save Democracy Yatra’ in Bengal.
The BJP had scheduled the Rath Yatra with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Mamata Banerjee had last month ridiculed the scheduled ‘rath yatra’ of the BJP as ‘ravan yatra’ and called for cleansing of areas through which the saffron party’s chariots would pass.
The TMC supremo also urged the people to “ignore the event as just another political gimmick”.
The state BJP leadership was quick to hit back, claiming that Banerjee was suffering from “fear psychosis” as it dreads losing to the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.
Amit Shah was set to kick-off three ‘rath yatras’ – which was to cover all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bengal – on December 5, 7 and 9.
At the conclusion of the ‘yatra’, the party planned to hold a massive rally in Kolkata, likely to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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