New Delhi: The BJP on Friday, January 26, took potshots at the Congress claiming the Mamata Banerjee government has decided to deny permission to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in West Bengal to “humiliate” the grand-old party.
The BJP’s jibe came after West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party was facing problems in getting permission for organising some public meetings in West Bengal as part of the yatra.
In a post on X, BJP co-incharge for West Bengal and IT department head Amit Malviya said, “Mamata Banerjee’s decision to deny Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra permission is like the last nail in the coffin of I.N.D.I. Alliance.”
“The decision is intended to humiliate the Congress… But it is interesting to see the Congress suffer from stockholm syndrome and continue to plead Mamata Banerjee to join the Yatra for just 5 minutes,” he added.
Malviya claimed Banerjee is “nervous” and doing all this in the hope that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) can contest all the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal to “remain relevant after results”.
“The excuse that it has been done in view of exams is a sham. There is no such compulsion because exams start on February 2 and the Yatra was to enter Siliguri region on January 28,” he said.
Banerjee on Wednesday announced her party will fight the Lok Sabha polls “alone” in the state, a remark that rattled the Congress and sent political ripples in the INDIA bloc.
The seat-sharing proposals between the Congress and the TMC went haywire after the latter accused the grand old party of making unjustified demands without acknowledging the ground reality.
Speaking to reporters in Siliguri on Friday, Chowdhury said the schedule of Gandhi’s yatra was submitted to the administration in the state long before.
“In some places, we are facing roadblocks as we are not getting permission to organise public meetings, citing exams. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has faced problems in the Northeast, including Assam, and now it is facing problems in TMC-ruled West Bengal as well,” Chowdhury, who is also leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, said.
“We were denied permission to hold a public meeting in Siliguri. We expected better cooperation from the state government. Anyways, the route and the itinerary of the yatra remain the same except for a few changes,” he added.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Arsalan Nazir | 
