Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was scheduled to hold a rally in West Bengal today. (PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist)Amid the BJP’s ongoing tussle with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the state government Sunday declined the permission for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s rally. The rallies, scheduled to be held today in Balurghat and Raigunj, were declined permission without any prior notice, news agency ANI quoted the Uttar Pradesh CM’s office as saying.
“This is the result of Adityanath’s popularity that Mamata Banerjee has not even allowed us to land the chopper,” Mritunjay Kumar, Information Advisor to Yogi Adityanath told ANI.
The rallies were a part of the BJP’s plan of organising up to 200 public meetings in the state by February 8 to boost its electoral prospects ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Apart from Adityanath, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are among those who will address the party’s rallies in the state.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday kickstarted the saffron party’s campaign in West Bengal for the coming Lok Sabha election by addressing two rallies in Durgapur and Thakurnagar.
Accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led government of trampling democracy, he said, “TMC doesn’t take interest in initiating development projects where there is no share for the syndicate…where there is no ‘malai’ (cream).”
He also took a dig at the Opposition’s rally organised by Mamata Banerjee in which over 20 leaders from across political parties came together to take on the Modi government in Lok Sabha elections. “The people who were on the stage at Brigade didn’t use to see each other face to face 4 years ago. Now, they were hugging each other. They are afraid of this chowkidaar,” PM Modi said.
Earlier, BJP chief Amit Shah’s chopper was not given permission to land at the Malda airport in West Bengal. The BJP had initially accused the government of denying them permission to use the Malda airstrip, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had rubbished the claim.
