Shah hits out at Mamata as rally fails to take off

KOLKATA/COOCH BEHAR/NEW DELHI: The Calcutta high court on Friday ordered the state chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police to meet BJP leaders by December 12 and decide whether the party’s proposed yatras in the state should go ahead, as the BJP squared off against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) well ahead of the battle for Bengal in next year’s general election.

Modifying an order by a single bench that put all three BJP yatras on hold until January 9, a division bench of the court said the three state officials should meet with, at the most, three leaders from the party and reach a decision by December 14. Incidentally, December 12 is the day after the results of elections in five states are to be declared. Justice Biswanath Somadder gave the directive after a hearing that lasted all day.

In one of the remarks during the debate, the judge asked the counsel for the BJP whether the party in its several letters to the administration mentioned that the meeting they sought was for the yatra. The judges also pulled up the administration, with Justice Somadder using words like “astounding” and astonishing” to describe the attitude of the state government.