BJP President Amit Shah at an election rally in Jharkhand on November 16, 2014 (Press Trust of India photo)
The BJP has gone to court over the location it wants for a rally to be addressed in Kolkata by its president, Amit Shah, on November 30.
The party wants to hold the public meeting in front of Victoria House in the heart of the city. It points out that it applied for permission as early as July. The police has refused, contending that the rally would cause jams since Victoria House is near a major traffic intersection.
But the BJP points out that the ruling Trinamool Congress holds its annual meeting of party workers at the same location every 21 July. After making its case in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, the BJP was asked to meet today with the city police. An alternative venue was rejected by the BJP; the city's top cop, police commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayastha, has said he will share a final decision tomorrow.
The BJP says if it is refused the venue it has sought, it will go back to court on Monday.
Mr Shah, 50, who is credited with the BJP's recent landslide victories in key states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, has asked his party workers in Bengal to maximize a new recruitment drive. Party workers disenchanted with the Trinamool Congress and the Left are reportedly switching sides in large numbers.
In the parliamentary election in May, the BJP won two seats, giving it a foothold in a state where it has been considered a virtual non-entity. It also won an important by-election for the state legislature recently, defeating the Trinamool candidate.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who heads the Trinamool, said this week that she is open to being part of a national platform that includes the Left to block the BJP, which is criticized by opponents like her as a proponent of communalism.
Ms Banerjee ended the Left's 34 year-long term in Bengal in elections in 2011; the state votes again in 2016.