BJP replaces Kolkata rally with protest

KOLKATA: The BJP has called off its Kolkata rally scheduled for November 30 and replaced it with a protest march.

The move coincides with the rout the party suffered in the assembly election in neighbouring Bihar.

Even though national leaders have claimed that there was ‘no looking back,’ and political programmes would continue in Bengal as planned, BJP sources said that the central leaders were “unsure” of the public response to the ‘Utthan Diwas’ rally.

“The Bihar results, of course, left its effect in neighboring states. So we want to wait for some time and try to revive the support base before we organise a mega rally by Amit Shah,” said a senior BJP leader.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a couple of rallies in south and north Bengal in January, as ground work for the state assembly polls in April 2016 and Shah address two consecutive mega-rallies in Kolkata and Siliguri in December.

For the record, BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said, “we have not cancelled our Utthan Diwas programme. But the pattern has been changed slightly. In place of a mega rally, we would be holding a protest march here . And it was decided on November 6 in a meeting in Delhi, two days prior to Bihar results.

From the first week of December, we will hold several rallies in districts and spearhead a ‘jail bharo andolan.’

Our party president would also hold two rallies in south and north Bengal. Moreover, Prime Minister Modi would address mass rallies in January here followed by several rallies held by our senior leaders including Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley.”