The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday moved Supreme court seeking permission to organise a Rath Yatra in West Bengal. The move comes after the division bench of Calcutta High Court set aside the judgment of a single judge which had earlier granted permission to the saffron party for holding the yatra. The party has sought an urgent hearing into the case.
Speaking to FinancialExpress.com, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “Today, we have appealed to Supreme court after not being satisfied with the High Court verdict. We hope that Honourable top court will allow us to hold Rath Yatra.” Slamming Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government, the BJP president said that BJP’s plans have created a sense of fear within Mamata Banerjee’s party. Ghosh further said that the saffron party is now organising rallies in each and every district of the state.
On Friday, the division bench comprising the Chief Justice Debasish Kar Gupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar had asked the saffron party to not hold any yatras as of now. Earlier on December 6, 2018, a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court had declined to grant permission to the saffron party to organise political programme which was scheduled to start by BJP president Amit Shah on December 7.
The court had then asked state chief secretary, the home secretary and the Director General of Police to meet with BJP leaders and arrive at a decision on the yatra by December 14. However, the trio later decided not to allow the BJP to hold yatra citing disturbance to communal harmony.
With an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha election in 2019, the BJP has planned to cover all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal. The mega programme titled- ‘Save Democracy Rally’ was scheduled to start from Cooch Behar on December 7, from Birbhum’s Tarapith temple on December 14 and from South 24 Parganas’s Kakdwip on December 9, 2018. Currently, the saffron party has two Lok Sabha seats in the state- Asansol and Darjeeling.