West Bengal: BJP leader Dilip Ghosh alleges “deliberate” denial of permission for PM Modi’s Bardhaman rally

Purba Bardhaman: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh on Monday claimed that the West Bengal government is not granting permission for the proposed public meeting to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 3 in Bardhaman.

Ghosh, while speaking to the reporters here on Tuesday said that the BJP will be “forced” to go to court if permission is not given for the PM’s rally.

“PM Modi will address a gathering on May 3 in Bardhaman. While searching for a suitable ground for their meeting, local BJP leaders have chosen two grounds. But permission is being deliberately not given for the meeting. We will be forced to go to court if permission is not given,” Ghosh said.

The date of voting for the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency is 13 May (Phase 4), as announced by the Election Commission of India.

West Bengal is the state with the third highest number of seats of 42 in the Lok Sabha, only behind Uttar Pradesh with 80 and Maharashtra with 48.

In the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency, BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh faces a pivotal challenge to overturn this pattern and secure his political future.

Since its establishment in 2009, Bardhaman-Durgapur has sent CPI(M), TMC and BJP representatives once each to the Lok Sabha in the three previous polls.

In 2019, BJP’s S S Ahluwalia clinched the seat from the TMC by a narrow margin of approximately 3,000 votes, marking it as a challenging battleground for the BJP.

During Ghosh’s tenure as the state BJP president, the party won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.