BJP president Amit Shah on Friday attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her administration and the Trinamool Congress after BJP’s plans for a three-leg Rath Yatra in the State came unglued after the Calcutta High Court refused permission for it. He said the Yatra, the other two legs of it, would take place, with the Cooch Behar leg being postponed till clearance was granted.
Mr. Shah said he would be travelling to Kolkata on Saturday where he is expected to address party workers. He minced no words, as he addressed a press conference in New Delhi, in holding the Trinamool Congress-led administration in Bengal as responsible for “subverting democracy and political process.”
“We had informed the Home Secretary of West Bengal on October 29 about our programme. We had sent reminders on November 5, 12 and 20. We sent reminders to the Director General of Police on November 14, 20, and 30 but they ignored it. The West Bengal government under the Trinamool Congress is misusing the instruments of the State to throttle democracy and behave in a wholly undemocratic manner,” he said. He said the Cooch Behar leg of the Yatra for which permission had been denied was not being cancelled but postponed. “We will abide by the law and fight this through legal channels,” said Mr. Shah.
He claimed that the Trinamool government had beaten the previous Left Front government in the State in employing violence against political rivals. “Of a 100 politically linked killings in the country, 26 take place in West Bengal alone. In the recent panchayat polls in the State, 20 of our workers died and 1,341 workers were injured, even so we won 7,000 seats in panchayats across the State and that is what has panicked Mamata Banerjee and her party. The Trinamool Congress feels that if the BJP is allowed to take these yatras they will go to each district and village of the State and expose the State government,” he said.
