West Tripura police on Monday denied permission to Trinamul for its proposed September 15 march to be led by its national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Agartala on the grounds that a rally by another political party was scheduled for the “same day, same time and same route”.

Police informed Trinamul leader and former MLA Subal Bhowmik on Monday of their inability to grant permission.

In response, Trinamul leaders Kunal Ghosh and Sushmita Dev held a news meet in Agartala, terming the refusal a “conspiracy”. Both said the police action reflected Trinamul’s “growing” acceptance by people in Tripura, which “scared” the ruling BJP in that state.

Trinamul has decided to hold a rally on September 16 even if the police again denied it permission.

Late on Monday, Abhishek took to Twitter to slam Tripura’s Biplab Deb government and dared the Tripura chief minister to “stop him”.

The Trinamul MP tweeted: “.@BJP4India is SCARED TO DEATH and @BjpBiplab is using all his might & resources to prevent me from entering Tripura. Keep trying but you CANNOT stop me. Your fear of @AITCofficial shows that your days in governance are numbered. Truth be told, YEH DARR HUMEIN ACHHA LAGA!”

Dev told this paper that they would hold the event on September 16, “permission or no permission”. “We have applied afresh for permission but will hit the streets even if we don’t receive police nod because we want to send a message to people that we are for peace and progress, not violence,” she said.

Dev also asked the police to name the political party that got permission for the rally on September 15. “It is hard to believe that the rally by another party was scheduled for the same day, same time and same route,” she said.

Tripura minister Sushanta Chowdhury said Mamata Banerjee’s party did not get police permission as they did not apply properly. The BJP leader accused Trinamul of trying to get people from Bengal and Assam for the rally and create unrest.

Trinamul leader in Tripura Ashish Lal Singh said preparations for the rally were on and the party expected a turnout of 50,000 people.

Trinamul’s proposed march was announced a day after the attack on offices of the CPM and a few media houses offices on Wednesday by suspected BJP members. The CPM already held a protest rally in Agartala last Thursday and would organise further programmes “to establish the rule of law” in the state.