Kolkata: After being stalled for two days following clashes with Trinamool Congress supporters on Friday, the BJP resumed its two-wheeler rally from Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house in North Kolkata on Monday.
State BJP President Dilip Ghosh and all-India general secretary Rahul Sinha flagged off the rally with 200 odd motorbikes in the wake of the state government filing a fresh appeal at the Calcutta High Court to stop it.
Two FIRs were lodged at the Hare Street Police Station and Gariahat Police Station against Ghosh. The complainants have alleged that Ghosh tried to incite violence across the state with the rally. However, an unfazed Ghosh said that his lawyers would give an appropriate reply.
The rally is expected to reach Krishnanagar in Nadia district on Monday, head towards Malda on Tuesday and follow its previously charted 1600 kilometre route to north Bengal. The bikers’ rally is likely to culminate in Cooch Behar on January 20, two days behind its initial schedule.
Armed with a Calcutta High Court ruling quashing the West Bengal government’s denial of permission, the rally is being monitored by court-appointed special officers amid strong apprehensions of violence.
BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “The rally will complete its journey and speak about atrocities across the state. The high court has granted permission to hold the rally and we are told we will get police protection.”
Called ‘Pratirodh Sankalp Abhigyan’, the bikers of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha started their journey on January 11 from the sea coast of Digha and reached Kolkata the same day. Rally participants, who were putting up for the night at the Girish Park area, alleged that they were attacked on January 12 morning, by TMC supporters who tried to stop the rally from resuming its journey from Swami Vivekananda’s house.
Ugly clashes broke out between BJP rallyists and TMC supporters at Central Avenue on Friday while the two-wheeler rally was headed for Swami Vivekananda’s house from the state headquarters of the party.
Fourteen BJP supporters were injured and the Calcutta High Court Observer’s car was ransacked. The court ordered the rally to be suspended for two days after the observer reported the day’s incidents before the judges.
Even as both the state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress continue to oppose the rally, sources in state BJP leadership have said that further attacks on the rally cannot be ruled out.
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