Union minister and MP from Darjeeling S.S. Ahluwalia said senior leaders of the BJP will take a call on whether to approach the Supreme Court to help the BJP hold 'rath yatra' in West Bengal. This, after a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelled the December 20 order of a single-judge bench that gave the permission to the BJP to take out processions in the state.
Said Ahluwalia to THE WEEK, "There is no confusion after the latest verdict. It is not a setback for us. Our party’s central leadership will take an appropriate decision soon." Ahluwalia is one of the two BJP MPs from West Bengal. The other is Union minister Babul Supriyo, who represents Asansol constituency.
The BJP is planning to organise rallies in different parts of the state to counter the decision by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress to vehemently oppose the BJP’s yatra in the state.
The BJP had earlier welcomed the December 20 order of the high court that granted it permission to hold the 'rath yatra', after the state refused permission, quoting intelligence reports of likely communal violence in certain areas of the state. The BJP had even fixed the tentative dates for the three-phase 'rath yatra' programme in the state—December 28, 29 and 31. BJP president Amit Shah was supposed to inaugurate the three yatras from Cooch Behar, Kakdwip-Ganga Sagar and Birbhum. The plan was to intersect these yatras at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have addressed a mega rally.
The BJP is playing the dangerous communal card, said Goutam Deb, tourism minister of West Bengal, to THE WEEK, "The only intention of that party is to create communal tension in the state. It is trying to divide us, the Bengalis, on the basis of religion. We are not afraid of the BJP. It has, and never will, make an impact in West Bengal."
BJP state vice president Rabin Chatterjee said it was the TMC that was playing the communal card. "The state government is scared of the BJP, and it is making it so evident. No matter what the state government does, the BJP will continue to grow in West Bengal," said Chatterjee to THE WEEK.
In the high court, the state government was represented by senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier called the 'rath yatra' a "ravan yatra". "It is not a rath or a chariot, but a five-star hotel," she said in a rally.
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The BJP leaders in Bengal say that Mamata is using the politics of fear to destroy local BJP leaders in the state. "In a healthy democracy, every political party should remain in some form or the other. The problem with Mamata is that she is so hellbent. She wants to make sure that the BJP doesn't grow in the state. That will happen only in her dreams. People will teach her a lesson in 2019," said a BJP leader.
It is not about being hellbent, said Chandan Mitra, Trinamool Congress leader, who was earlier with the BJP, to THE WEEK. "There is no political agenda here. It is the court that has given the order in this case. Yes, the judges went by what the state government said, because they found substance in it.”
The BJP is aiming at winning 25 of total 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. If that works out, the party will work towards forming the government in the state in 2021, when the state goes to poll. The BJP’s top brass has asked Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb, a Bengali, to actively campaign for the party in West Bengal from now on.
In the 2014 general elections in West Bengal, of 42 seats, the TMC won 34, the CPI(M) two, the BJP two and the Congress four seats. In the 2016 elections held in the state, of 294 assembly seats, the Trinamool Congress won 211, the CPI(M) 26, the Congress 44 and the BJP three seats.
Abdul Mannan, leader of opposition in West Bengal, and a veteran Congress leader said to THE WEEK that all these ruckus being created by the BJP and the Trinamool Congress is part of their game-plan. “The Trinamool Congress wants the BJP to emerge as a strong opposition in Bengal, and this is all drama by both these political parties. She (Mamata) wants to finish the Congress and the CPI(M) in the state. How can she fight the BJP by finishing the Congress? There were so many cases against many Trinamool Congress leaders in the state that the Central government had raised. But what happened to those cases now? There is surely some adjustment between Mamata and Modi,” said Mannan.
Mannan said Mamata was threatening some Congress MLAs to join the Trinamool Congress. "Or else, she warns them of getting implicated in false cases," he said.
