KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Thursday accused the state's Mamata Banerjee government of denying them permission for a meeting by party chief Amit Shah at a state run auditorium here and claimed that it is resorting to such tactics to stop BJP's progress in the state.
The BJP sought permission from the State Youth and Sports Department run Netaji Indoor Stadium to hold a meeting of Amit Shah on April 9 but were told that the venue has been pre-booked.
"The stadium authority denied permission for the meeting on that day citing that some sporting event would be held there. This is nothing but a tactics to stop BJP's rise in Bengal," Ghosh told IANS over phone.
"Trinamool Congress is scared by the progress we are making here. They are not able to stop BJP in any way. So now they are trying to stop our senior leaders from holding rallies and meetings. But they would not be successful," he said.
Ghosh said they would be looking for alternative venue for Shah's meeting.
"The meeting would not be cancelled at any cost. We are looking for other venues where it can be held," he added.
The incident brought back the memory of a similar situation in September last year, when Shah was denied permission to hold a public meeting at the same venue as repair work was going on. The meeting got cancelled later.