West Bengal:BJP president Amit Shah's rally in West Bengal's Jadavpur was called off after he was denied permission to hold a gathering and refused the permission to land his chopper — news agency ANI reported citing BJP sources.
According to the agency report, Shah was denied permission to land his chopper in Jadavpur district in the run-up to the last phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019. According to the report, while permission was earlier granted for Shah's chopper to land, the same was denied later by the local authorities.
This is the latest in the ongoing political power-tussle in West Bengal ahead of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections 2019. Even earlier, in January, the BJP chief's chopper was not allowed to land in Malda district in the state. The authorities, however, granted last-minute permission to Shah to hold a rally in Malda. The authorities, while denying permission, had cited that it was not feasible to land a VVIP chopper in the area due to the then ongoing construction work.
While BJP leader and union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had cited that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's chopper too operated from Malda, the authorities, in their defence, claimed that she too had to change the landing location on request by the police authorities.
Besides Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was denied permission to land in West Bengal chose to land at Bokaro in Jharkhand and then travelled to Purulia by road to address a rally. On yet another occasion on February 3, after being denied permission for his chopper to land, Adityanath addressed a rally in Raiganj over the telephone.