Tripura cops decline permission for Abhishek Banerjee’s roadshow again, says TMC

AGARTALA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has deferred its September 16 roadshow proposed led by party’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee after the police declined to permit the padyatra for the second time, a senior party leader said.

According to the TMC, the police didn’t give permission on the grounds that they would be busy with law and order duties on the eve of the Vishwakarma Puja on September 16.

“We earlier deferred our padayatra programme on September 15 and again on September 16. It is clear that the BJP is scared of our increasing popularity. Our leaders want peace and so we have deferred our programme to September 22,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said on Tuesday.

Ghosh said if the police declines them permission again, the TMC will go to court.

Inspector General of Police ( Law and Order) Arindam Lodh said, “There is Viswakarma puja on September 17 here. The puja is celebrated here in grand way and preparations for the puja, like, buying idols etc., will be on September 16. And police will be busy in looking after law and order. So, the permission was not given for conducting any political activity on that day.”

He also said that the Trinamool Congress has applied for their programme on September 22. “ We will convey our decision to them soon, “ he said.

The ruling BJP defended the police decision, accusing the TMC of planning to create unrest in the state by bringing people from Kachhar, Karimganj, Silchar in Assam for the roadshow.

Ghosh trashed the allegation, insisting that the TMC had enough supporters in Tripura and didn’t need to bring people from outside.

The roadshow, the first big ticket event planned by the Trinamool Congress in Tripura, was seen to indicate the opposition party’s effort to scale up its campaign pitch ahead of the 2023 state elections.

Already, Trinamool leaders claim that the TMC, and not the CPM had emerged as the lead opposition party in the state. The CPM is silent over public issues and former chief minister Manik Sarkar could not enter his own constituency, Dhanpur in these three and half years, said Susmita Dev who quit the Congress in August and joined the TMC. On Tuesday, Dev was named as the TMC candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections.