They can arrest me all they want, said asserted a sarcastic Amit Shah as it was reported that his rally being denied permission by Mamata Banerjee’s government of Kolkata-the one with whom he has been scuffling over the list of citizens of Assam. However, the Bengal police later clarified its stance saying that no such request of a rally has been turned down so far.
On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee told a news daily between her rounds of homes of certain opposition leaders, “Amit Shah can go wherever he wants. Who is stopping him”.
It was four years back that the civic body of Kolkata had denied permission for Amit Shah’s rally. However, the BJP had finally gotten a permission from the Calcutta High Court for the rally that was held in the month of November in the year 2014.
The confrontation had fired the animosity between Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee and BJP. Bengal is one of the states that are non-Congress and non-BJP and ranks to be high on Mr Shah’s hit-list along with Kerala. Mr Shah, who has set a target of 50 percent Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal plans to visit Kolkatta and hold a rally on August 11.
Currently, BJP seems to have minimal presence in the state assembly with only three seats. In the year 2014, the party had won just 2 seats for the Lok Sabha from the state. But in the last 2 years, the BJP has been successful to extricate the Left and the chief opposition party in the state.
As of now, the Chief Minister has locked horns with Mr Shah over the draft citizens’ list in the state of Assam. The National Register of Citizens, which had excluded 40 lakh people had been opposed by Ms. Banerjee fervently and is there in Delhi to hold a meeting with the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh concerning the issue.
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