The BJP has shifted the venues of two public meetings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bengal this week and is facing problems finding a ground for another rally by the party’s national chief Amit Shah.
Modi will address a rally at Kamanasagar ground in Thakurnagar, North-24 Parganas, on Saturday, though the party’s first preference was the Thakurbari Mela ground there. In Durgapur, the party had zeroed in on the SAIL-owned Rajiv Gandhi Maidan for the Prime Minister’s meeting, but the venue was later shifted to the Nehru Stadium.
Sources said the BJP did not know that the Matua Maha Sangha would hold a weeklong religious event at the Thakurbari Mela ground from Thursday. Trinamul’s Bongaon MP, Mamata Bala Thakur, is a key organiser of the religious event.
After deciding on the Rajiv Gandhi Maidan in Durgapur, the BJP found out that it had been booked by a religious organisation long ago for a two-day programme from Sunday. The local administration denied permission for Modi’s rally there.
Shah is slated to hold a rally on land owned by five BJP workers in East Midnapore’s Contai on Tuesday. But police have withheld permission for the meeting after 19 farmers owning the land adjacent to the venue approached the law enforcers. The farmers said their fields would be damaged by the crowd at the rally.
Although the uncertainty persisted, BJP leaders said they were determined to hold the rally.
BJP state general-secretary Sayantan Basu alleged that the party was facing hurdles in finding venues for the rallies because of the Mamata Banerjee government.
However, sources in the BJP attributed the problem to alleged lack of co-ordination between the state unit and central leadership, which resulted in last-minute finalisation of dates.
Trinamul’s North 24-Parganas’s president and minister Jyotipriya Mullick said the BJP’s blame game was a sign of its frustration.