Kolkata: The Birbhum district police have denied permission for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra rally on Friday, warning of serious police action if it is conducted.
The Birbhum district police superintendent's office has sent a communication stating that permission for the rally in the district has been denied due to the secondary examinations held by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) beginning on Friday.
The rally in Murshidabad district, also scheduled on Friday, has been denied police permission on the same grounds.
These rallies were supposed to be the last event under the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state after which it was scheduled to enter neighbouring Jharkhand.
State Congress president in West Bengal and the five-time Congress Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the Nyay Yatra rally would not have hampered the examination process or caused disturbance for the examinees under any circumstance.
"The examinations are supposed to start from 9.45 a.m. and continue till 1 p.m. Our rally would have started after the beginning of the examination and would have left before its end. Rahul Gandhi is supposed to be in West Bengal on Friday for just two to three hours, before proceeding towards Jharkhand. Still, the permission was denied," Chowdhury said.
Congress district president Miltan Rashid said that it is clear that the district police denied the permission at the "insistence" of the Trinamool Congress government.
"Our rally has always been very peaceful. It is the state government that is creating administrative hurdles one after another since it entered West Bengal," Rashid said.
With inputs from IANS