Calcutta high court allows BJP rath yatra in West Bengal 

The Calcutta high court.

New Delhi: The Calcutta high court, on Thursday, allowed the state BJP to go ahead with its proposed rath yatras, which was scheduled to be flagged off by party chief Amit Shah, across West Bengal. The court also directed the administration to ensure that there is no breach of law and order. The court also ordered the state police to be prepared 12 hours in advance to avoid any inconvenience and to help maintain a peaceful nature. BJP welcomed this verdict calling it a “victory of democracy”.

Earlier, the court denied the BJP the permission to hold the yatras in Bengal. The party planned several rath yatras across the state, covering all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies, but didn’t get the permission in Bengal. The ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government denied the permission twice to hold the yatras. Despite holding a meeting with the party leaders, the government said in a letter to the BJP that it would not be able to grant permission to take out the rallies due to law and order concerns.

After the court verdict, the state BJP vice-president, Joy Prakash Majumdar, said “It is a victory of democracy and the people of West Bengal. It is a defeat of those who are murdering democracy here. The state government without any reason had said that this rath yatra will deteriorate the law and order situation here. The court has rejected this theory and said it is the duty of the administration to ensure law and order and directed it to provide adequate security to all three of our rallies. The court has asked us to conduct the rallies peacefully and we will abide by that. The court has also directed us to inform respective district administrations 12 hours prior to our yatras entering those districts. We welcome this verdict,”

The BJP also slammed the state government for deliberately stalling their scheduled political program. However, The BJP now take out the yatras from Cooch Behar, Sagar Island and Tarapith on December 22, 24 and 26 respectively.

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