The Trinamool Congress (TMC) all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who is also a nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, said on Monday that the BJP was ‘scared to death’ about the prospect of his visit to Tripura, after the administration in Agartala, the capital city of the BJP-ruled northeastern state, denied permission to proposed rallies to be led by him on September 15 and 16.
The 34-year-old youth leader of Mamata Banerjee’s party was scheduled to visit Agartala on September 15 to take part in a rally protesting political violence allegedly perpetrated by BJP workers on the workers and supporters of the BJP, which is making a second attempt – after 2016 – to build an organisation in the state where the population is dominated by the Bengalis and different tribal groups.
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Over the past couple of months, reports of incidents of political violence on the supporters of the TMC and the CPI(M) in Tripura has frequently made headlines in the media in West Bengal and Tripura.
On Monday, the Agartala administration first denied permission for any TMC rally on September 15, saying another political party had already announced their mass programme across Agartala.
When the TMC’S Tripura leader Subal Bhowmik, a former MLA, applied for an alternative route and September 16 as the alternative date, that too was turned down, with the sub-divisional police officer of Sadar division arguing in his letter that the police force will remain occupied on September 16 due to Vishwakarma Puja that would take place on September 17.
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Abhishek Banerjee shared from his Twitter account both these letters of denial of permission and wrote, “@BJP4India is SCARED TO DEATH” AND @BjpBiplab is using all his might & resources to prevent me from entering Tripura. Keep trying but you CANNOT stop me. Your fear of @AITCofficial shows that your days in governance are numbered. Truth be told, YEH DARR HUMEIN ACHHA LAGA!”
The TMC had announced on September 10 that Banerjee will be leading a rally from Rabindra Bhawan to Chowmouhani, a 2-km stretch, on September 15.
He had visited Agartala twice in August and promised to visit once in every three weeks to ensure the route of the BJP in the assembly elections to be held in 2023. Former Congress MP from Assam Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the TMC, is also spending significant time to build the TMC in Tripura.
