KOLKATA: The West Bengal BJP began its controversial five-day state-wide motorbike rally, called ‘Pratirodh Sankalp Rally’, here on Monday even as the Calcutta High Court ordered that the party take responsibility for any untoward incident caused by the rally.
Kolkata Police has launched an investigation to determine whether 44 Lucknow-registered motorbikes used in campaigning for Yogi Adityanath during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections have been brought in to foment trouble in West Bengal.
While the ruling Trinamool Congress claimed that the UP-registered motorbikes had been brought to foment trouble in West Bengal, the saffron party stated that the vehicles were meant for booth-level committees to carry out a door-to-door campaign before panchayat elections.
The presence of motorbikes from BJP-ruled Jharkhand in the motorbike rally also raised questions about the possibility of trouble during the ‘Pratirodh Sankalp Rally’.
Flagged off by state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and the party’s national secretary, Rahul Sinha, here, the rally was shown black flags by TMC workers at Ranaghat in Nadia district. The rally will halt at Baharampur in Murshidabad district on Monday night and resume its journey towards Coochbehar on Tuesday morning.
The rally was rescheduled by the Calcutta High Court on Friday after 14 BJP workers were injured in a clash between BJP and TMC supporters in central Kolkata that day. The rally was originally scheduled to be held from January 11 to 18.