All the three BJP-led rath yatras scheduled to commence in the first week of December will now solely be inaugurated by party president Amit Shah. Earlier, Shah was to inaugurate only one yatra while the other two were to be flagged off by Assam Chief Minister Sarwananda Sonowal and his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath.
With the 2019 general elections less than a year away the BJP rath yatras were scheduled to commence on December 3, 5 and 7 and culminate in a proposed grand rally to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the historic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata sometime in January.
After the rescheduling the three Yatras will now commence on December 5, 7 and 9, party sources said quoting Shah’s office and added “because of his preoccupation in Rajasthan elections he will be able to inaugurate the programmes on December 5 only.”
Earlier Shah was to lead his Yatra from Birbhum, the UP Chief Minister was to start his Yatra from Ganga Sagar Islands while the third Yatra was to be led by Sonwal from Coochbehar in Northernmost Bengal.
Now Shah will inaugurate the first Yatra from Tara Peeth in Birbhum, second Yatra from Coochbehar and the third Yatra from Ganga Sagar, sources said.
The Chief Ministers will now be required to address mass meetings to be held enroute the Rath Yatras, sources said. Other leaders like Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal are also likely to address meetings during the Yatra.
“The Yatras will be taken out in protest against Trinamool Congress’ reign of terror, its appeasement policy and continuing infiltration through Bangladesh border,” State BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said.
However Trinamool Congress leaders like Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and Firhad Hakim said the Yatras will end up in a damp squib. “Earlier Yatras were taken out under the leadership LK Advani also. But it was not successful in Bengal. This time also it will fail here as the people of Bengal do not like communal politics,” Roy said.
Meanwhile, in a unrelated development violence continued to mar Bengal politics with a Trinamool Congress block leader being gunned down allegedly by BJP. The saffron outfit however denied such charges. Dipak Ghosh a TMC leader of consequence in Birbhum district was shot and hacked to death by the BJP goons imported from Jharkhand district TMC president Anubrata Mondal said adding his party “will not take such things lying down and will definitely give a befitting reply.”
BJP State secretary Dilip Ghosh however said the murder was the result of in-fighting in the TMC over hundreds of crores that was coming from illegal coal mining in the area.”
Within hours of the TMC worker’s death a BJP man Tapas Das was found hanging from a tree at Luvpur in the same district with the saffron leadership pointing fingers at the TMC for the murder. “Tapas was our dedicated worker and was killed by the TMC like they did to our men in Purulia a few months ago,” BJP leaders alleged.