BJP chief Amit Shah plans to hold a rally in Kolkata on August 11.
Highlights
- BJP alleged West Bengal Police denied permission for Amit Shah's rally
- Amit Shah said he is going to Kolkata even if police arrest him
- BJP is planning to hold a protest outside Kolkata police headquarters
They can arrest me, BJP chief Amit Shah declared today as there were reports of his rally in Kolkata being denied permission by the government of Mamata Banerjee - with whom he has been sparring over the Assam citizens' list. He need not have bothered, with the Bengal police clarifying 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 opposition leaders' homes.
Four years ago, Kolkata's civic body had refused permission for a rally of Amit Shah. The BJP finally obtained permission from the Calcutta High Court for rally, held in November 2014.
The face-off had fuelled the animosity between the BJP and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Bengal is one of the few non-BJP, non-Congress states and ranks high on the target list of Mr Shah along with Kerala. The BJP chief, who has handed his party a target of 50 per cent Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, plans to visit Kolkata and hold a rally on August 11.
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 Chief Minister is currently locked in battle with Mr Shah over the draft citizens' list in Assam. The National Register of Citizens, which left out the names of 40 lakh people, has been bitterly opposed by Ms Banerjee, who is in Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the issue.