After Malda denial, will hold Nitin Gadkari’s rally in Dinajpur: BJP

New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari would be holding a rally in Dinajpur District after permission for holding a rally in violence-hit Malda was denied by the local administration.

“We have decided that we would organise a rally in Dinajpur, seventy kilometers away from Malda, we have got permission for that rally. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari would be addressing that rally,” BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya told reporters here.

“BJP president Amit Shah will address a rally in Howrah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh would be addressing a rally in Barasaat and Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani would be addressing a rally in Asansol,” he added.

The BJP had earlier attacked the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for not giving permission to a rally of Union Minister Gadkari in violence-hit Malda.

The police, however, said that they have not denied permission for holding the rally, rather they had asked for a land use certificate for holding the rally.

Violence broke out in Kaliachak area of Malda on December 3 last year over an alleged remark of a right wing leader.

Several vehicles were torched and public properties were destroyed.

A three-member BJP delegation had met Home Minister Singh and sought a high-level probe into violence in West Bengal’s Malda.

Their meeting with Singh came a day after a ‘fact-finding’ team of the party was not allowed by the state administration to visit violence-hit Kaliachak town, which falls in Malda district.

A team of BJP lawmakers on Monday was denied permission to visit violence-hit Kaliachak in Malda district, drawing a sharp attack from the party which accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of playing “vote bank” politics and said it will take the matter to the President.

Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, accused the BJP of trying to communalise the issue ahead of the ensuing assembly poll in the state. (ANI)