Yogi Adityanath’s scheduled visit to West Bengal’s Purulia to address a rally today has drawn a sharp reaction from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Advising her UP counterpart to handle the mess in his state first, Mamata cited mob lynching incidents and the killing of a policeman to hint at his falling graph of popularity.

“Ask Yogi to take care of Uttar Pradesh first. So many people have been killed, even policemen were murdered, so many people were lynched, he himself will lose if he contests elections. He doesn’t have a place to stand in UP that’s why he’s roaming around in Bengal,” Mamata told a crowd gathered at the site where she is staging a sit-in in protest against the CBI’s attempt to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar at his residence on Sunday evening.

Mamata and the BJP have been on a warpath after the state administration allegedly creating hurdles in the BJP’s campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in the state. After drawing BJP’s ire for refusing to allow BJP chief Amit Shah’s chopper to land near a rally site, the Mamata government then did the same with Adityanath last week.

The West Bengal government has denied permission for Adityanath’s chopper to land in Purulia for his scheduled rally today. The UP Chief Minister will now be taking the road to reach Purulia via Bokaro in Jharkhand where his helicopter will land first. On Monday he addressed a public rally in Balurghat on the phone after his chopper was denied permission to land.

During his address, the Uttar Pradesh CM had accused the West Bengal Government of “throttling the voice of the Opposition”. “I was supposed to reach your rally. But Bengal’s TMC government got scared and did not allow me to come. Therefore, using Modiji’s digital India, I have reached out to you,” he said.

Accusing the state government of being anti-democracy, Adityanath added that Mamata’s government is one which harbours anti-national and anarchic forces. “The Mamata Banerjee government first stopped our national president Amit Shah’s Rath Yatra and is now putting up more hurdles”.

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Yogi Adityanath will hold the rally in Purulia, amidst a dharna by Mamata Banerjee against the Modi government for destroying democracy and interference in institutions. This, after the CBI sleuths were detained briefly for trying to question the Kolkata top cop in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams. The Supreme Court, while hearing the CBI plea in the matter, asked Kumar to appear before the agency and cooperate in the probe.