BJP leaders told to meet Bengal officials to discuss programme

The West Bengal government Wednesday asked the state BJP leadership to meet officials led by the chief secretary and the director general of police at the Lalbazar police headquarters to discuss the party’s ‘rath yatra’ programme, a top leader said.

West Bengal BJP vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar said the party received a letter from the government, asking it to go to the Lalbazar police headquarters here on Thursday to discuss the schedule of the programme.

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had on December 7 directed the West Bengal chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police to hold a meeting with three representatives of the BJP by December 12, and take a decision on the ‘rath yatra’ by December 14.

“We have been asked to come to Lalbazar at 5.30 pm tomorrow. We will be there on time,” he said.

The BJP delegation will include party leaders Mukul Roy, Pratap Banerjee and Majumdar himself, he added.

BJP national president Amit Shah was slated to kickstart the campaign, titled ‘Save Democracy Rally’, from Cooch Behar district on Friday, from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district on December 9, and from Tarapith temple in Birbhum district on December 14.

The ‘rath yatras’ were to cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal.

The BJP moved the division bench of the Calcutta High Court after a single judge bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had refused permission to hold the yatra.

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