Shah rally gets nod after he dares Mamata to arrest him

Upping the ante, a combative BJP president Amit Shah has said he will definitely hold a rally in Kolkata on August 11 and dared the state government to arrest him, after his party leaders claimed that the local police had not yet given permission for the event.

“It does not matter whether I get permission or not, I will definitely go to Kolkata. If the state government wants, it can arrest me,” Shah was quoted as saying by ANI.

After Shah’s dare, the Bengal police clarified that no rally request had been turned down. "Amit Shah can go wherever he wants. Who is stopping him," Mamata Banerjee told NDTV between her rounds of meetings with opposition leaders, including L K Advani.

Four years ago, Kolkata's civic body had refused permission to Amit Shah for a rally. The BJP finally obtained permission from the Calcutta High Court.

Shah's proposed rally underscores his intention to build the issue as a major poll plank in Mamata’s state as Lok Sabha elections are barely eight

months away. As of now, the BJP has minimal presence in the state assembly with just three seats. In 2014, the party won just two Lok Sabha seats from the state. But over the last two years, the BJP has managed to dislodge the Left and become the main opposition party in the state.

The fresh flare up between Shah and Banerjee comes amid a war of words over the National Register of Citizen issue in Assam. Both leaders have accused each other of compromising national interests for the sake of vote-bank politics.

"If my parents were asked to prove identity they would also fail... they are simple farmers.’’ — Mamata