Calcutta High Court gives the go-ahead for conduct of BJP Rally in Kolkata; Amit Shah hails HC order as 'a victory of the masses'

President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah has today said that the permission given by Calcutta High Court for the conduct of his rally in Kolkata is "a victory of the masses". 

The rally assumes significance in view of the significant rise in the support base of the BJP in West Bengal recently. The BJP since the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year has been trying to make headway in the State. Of the 42 seats, it managed to win two – SS Ahluwalia (Darjeeling) and Babul Supriyo (Asansol). Supriyo has since been elevated as Minister of State for Urban Development in the recent expansion of the Union Council of Ministers. Significantly, BJP after a long gap has also been able to win an Assembly seat (in West Bengal) from Basirhat Dakshin constituency. Samik Bhattacharya is the only MLA of the party in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

(File Picture: Amit Shah, BJP President)

Earlier, the Trinamool Congress-run city civic body, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and other emergency services like the Fire Department, apart from the police, had initially declined permission for the Uthan rally planned to be held by the party outside Victoria House in central Kolkata citing certain 'deficiencies'. Reasons of traffic inconvenience and width of the staircase leading to the dais were stated. The authorities also reasoned that Shah couldn’t hold a public rally outside Victoria House on Sunday because the sketch of the podium that the BJP had submitted for permission does not exactly show the width of the staircase and the site plan was not according to scale. The certificate of the decorator hired was also not submitted. While rejecting BJP's plea, the fire department had said there must be "minimum 20 feet clear open space" between the boundary wall and the proposed stage. 

This had prompted the party (BJP) to move the Calcutta High Court challenging the non-issuance of the NOC by the authorities on the ground of discrimination by the administration. The Party had contended that the technical objections raised may be on valid grounds, but then these objections could be rectified after a dialogue with the civic authorities. In Court, Counsel for the BJP, Mr. S K Kapoor said the government's argument followed neither fact nor law. The court said BJP's applications to KMC and fire department were not in order. Kapoor assured that his client will comply with rules to ensure the rally is held on November 30.

The Calcutta High Court passed an order on Friday appointing two special officers – director general of state fire services Sanjoy Mukherjee and KMC joint commissioner (development) S Santra, to ensure the compliance of fire services and municipal rules in the public meeting, while observing that the government should not be rigid in the compliance of these rules while granting permission. The court asked officers to take a reasonable call on the "20-feet space rule".


On the same day, Counsel for the fire services Department, Pranab Dutta sought a stay on the Single Judge’s order following an oral appeal to Chief Justice Dr. Manjula Chellur. She however refused to pass an order based on verbal petition and asked Dutta to file a formal application. 

Following the High Court directive, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the state fire services department were left with no choice but to give the green signal for the conduct of Amit Shah's rally.

State BJP vice president Tathagata Roy said the ruling Trinamool Congress’s “conspiracy” to scuttle the rally stood exposed. Observers point out that he Victoria House venue has a great symbolic importance in the BJP-TMC face off. This has been favoured venue of TMC leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee over the years, from where she would make a show of her strength in the month of July, year after year.

The stage is now literally set for a grand face-off with the BJP all set to take on the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections in 2016. BJP leader and National Secretary of the party, Siddharth Nath Singh hinted as much when he said “Amit Shah-ji will sound the bugle for the 2016 Assembly polls in order to make West Bengal TMC free after 2016 polls."