Rath Yatra row: West Bengal BJP files caveat in Supreme Court

Kolkata, Dec 8: The West Bengal unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court in connection with the order passed by Calcutta High Court division bench on BJP's 'rath yatra'.

Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government will now have to give notice to BJP if they move an application to SC against the HC bench order.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused to give permission to the BJP 'rath yatras' scheduled to be flagged off by party president Amit Shah on Friday.

Ruling on a BJP petition, the court said the proposed rallies had the potential of creating communal tension in West Bengal.

In a scathing attack on the West Bengal government under Mamata, BJP chief Amit Shah accused the administration of being a roadblock. "A democratic process (Rath Yatra) has been suppressed in West Bengal with rampant misuse of power. The CM is following this trend, this is non-democratic," he said.

"I want to tell Mamata Banerjee that by not giving permission to BJP programs, you will only invite the ire of people in your state. She (Mamata) 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."

The West Bengal unit of the BJP had scheduled three rath yatras beginning Friday, which were proposed to travel across all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of the State.