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The Supreme Court has asked the Trinamool government to allow proposed public meetings and rallies of BJP under its “Ganatantra Bachao Yatra”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked BJP’s West Bengal unit to submit a revised schedule of its proposed ‘Rath Yatra’ with the authorities and seek necessary approvals.
The bench also comprising Justices L N Rao and SK Kaul asked the West Bengal government to consider the revised schedule of BJP for ‘Rath Yatra’ keeping in mind the fundamental right of speech and expression under the Constitution.
The bench said the apprehension of the state government of possible law and order situation cannot be called “unfounded” and BJP will have to take all possible steps to address the apprehension in reasonable manner.
The BJP has said it did not consider a setback the Supreme Court verdict, putting on hold the party’s proposed “rath yatra” programme in West Bengal, even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the order.
The saffron party said it would decide on its future action after discussions with the central leadership.
The proposed ”Rath Yatras” of the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls were put on hold Tuesday by the apex court, which asked the party to seek a fresh approval from the state government by submitting a revised proposal.
Ms Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’, “I welcome the court order. I’m not going to make any comment.”
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh declined to accept the SC verdict as a setback and said the party would take up other programmes to expose the “misrule” of the Trinamool Congress government in the state.
“In politics sometimes you taste success, sometimes you taste defeat. But there is nothing called setback. We have other plans ready to reach out to the masses,” he said.
Asked whether the BJP would chalk up a new ”Rath Yatra” schedule and seek permission from the state government in view of the verdict, Mr Ghosh said, “We will take a call regarding it after discussion with our central leadership.”
