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Kolkata Police give permission for Amit Shah’s rally on March 1
Shah will be in Kolkata on March 1 to decide the line of campaign to be followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming civic polls. Civic polls are likely to be held in April this year. The party’s state unit is also planning to felicitate Shah for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The Kolkata Police on Monday evening gave permission to union home minister Amit Shah’s rally scheduled to be held on March 1.
“We have asked them (Bharatiya Janata Party) to organize the rally,” said Subhankar Sinha Sarkar, joint commissioner (headquarters) of Kolkata police.
Shah will be in Kolkata on March 1 to decide the line of campaign to be followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming civic polls. Civic polls are likely to be held in April this year. The party’s state unit is also planning to felicitate Shah for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
“We have got permission. The event will happen as planned,” said Tushar Kanti Ghosh, BJP’s state unit secretary.
In 2014 and again in 2018, the Bengal BJP had to move court to get permission for holding Shah’s rally, who was then the party’s national president.
This time too uncertainty had developed over the permission for the rally as secondary and higher secondary examinations are going on. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board has banned the use of loud speakers in residential areas and around schools.
“There are no exams on that day. Neither are there any residential areas near the place where the rally would be held. So we think if the police give permission to use loud speakers then there won’t be any problem. Despite all these, if the Trinamool Congress party or the police think that they won’t give permission then it is a different issue. But it is not against the law,” Ghosh had said on February 21.
Ghosh had also said that the state BJP unit wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come to Kolkata.
“The Prime Minister is not coming as of now. But as Amit Shah, the main person behind the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, is coming we will felicitate him,” Ghosh had said.
Ghosh had said earlier that if the police decline to give permission the party would look for alternatives.
