West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scared that the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is growing its support base in the state, said BJP president Amit Shah, a day after the Calcutta High Court refused to grant permission for his rath yatra that was to kick start from Cooch Behar today (December 7).
Shah accused Mamata of “throttling” democracy because her government denied permission for his planned yatras in the state.
After the state government refused permission, the BJP approached the high court, which in turn refused to set aside the government’s decision. As a result, the BJP had to postpone the three rath yatras.
He said the yatras have not been cancelled, “just postponed” and that the BJP will follow the judicial process to get permission. The BJP has meanwhile moved an appeal before a division bench.
Training his guns on Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress government, the BJP president said people in the state are ready for change and asserted that the party will win a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
Amit Shah said the BJP’s expansion in the state and win in over 7,000 seats in the panchayat polls has “rattled” Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. “It is giving her sleepless nights and left her scared,” Shah said.
“She knows these yatras will lay the foundation for change. That is why she is trying to stop them,” he said.
According to Shah, the state government often denied permission to his party’s programmes. It had kept writing to the home department and the director general of police to seek their nod for the yatras but in vain, Shah alleged.
“The way Mamata Banerjee is using her government to trample upon democratic norms is very undemocratic and is throttling democracy,” he said.
In his view, his party’s campaign in the state against the “misgovernance” of the Trinamool Congress has resulted in people rising against it.
Announcing that he would visit the state on Saturday, Shah said he would give the chief minister “unsolicited” advice — that the more her government tries to suppress the BJP, the more will anger spread among people.
