There was double whammy for the Trinamool Congress leadership planning to storm Delhi streets on October 2 and 3 with 5000 men to press for the clearance of frozen MNREGA funds.

Hours after Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee dared the Centre to stop him from leading his men to the national capital, the Eastern Railways announced its inability to provide the special train asked and paid for by the TMC to carry its cadres to Delhi.

While a furious TMC leadership slammed the top BJP leadership for pulling the chain from behind to stop TMC’s train rubbing salt to the wound the Calcutta High Court too directed the Enforcement Directorate not to let the investigation process stalled on October 3, the day the central Agency has asked Banerjee to appear before its officials in Kolkata apparently to explain the conduct of his company Leaps and Bounds in the multi-crore recruitment scam.

Banerjee had on Friday written on his X handle that “the fight against the deprivation of WB and its rightful dues shall persist regardless of the obstacles. No force on Earth can hinder my dedication to fightfor the people of WB and their fundamental rights. I’ll be in Delhi joining the protest on Oct 2nd & 3rd. STOP ME IF U CAN!” Eastern Railways officials said that “due to unavailability of rakes we had to cancel the special train bound for Delhi” on Saturday morning. Apparently getting “stopped” in his bid to lead thousands of his supporters to Delhi, Banerjee hit back in the evening questioning the motive of the Eastern Railway authorities.

Expressing dismay at the “BJP Government’s conduct” he called this a “blatant obstruction to the people of Bengal of their right to protest.”

Crestfallen, Banerjee said “this is a shocking display of deceit … the BJP Government denied to give the special train after accepting the (initial) deposit,” which proved that the BJP government was cowered in fear of the TMC. Then he wrote, “Loving this fear.”

The TMC leaders said how they had brought all the people to Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Stadium and everything was ready for Saturday morning journey when the "Railway's decision came like a bolt from the blue."

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “the train that we were to take to Delhi has been cancelled because the BJP knows what TMC is capable of … this has been done to stall our programme in Delhi … they did not allow us to hold a rally at Ramlila Maidan, they did not even allow us to rally in front of the Rural Development ministry … even Union Minister Giriraj Singh would not give our top leaders like Mamata

Banerjee, the Chief Minister, a former Railway Minister and 7-time MP

time to meet … this only shows that they are trying to flee the people.”