This story is from February 6, 2019

Drama precedes Yogi’s Purulia meet

Drama precedes Yogi’s Purulia meet
Purulia: High drama prevailed on both sides of the Bengal-Jharkhand border along NH-60A in the run up to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s public meeting at Purulia’s Bhangra on Tuesday. With the Bengal government denying permission for Yogi’s helicopter to land near the meeting ground, the BJP built as many as seven helipads in neighbouring Jharkhand, where the party is in power.
BJP sources said the idea was to keep guessing so that those, albeit, Trinamool, bent on placing obstacles on Yogi’s path were thwarted. The UP CM finally landed at a helipad in Baramesh village in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district.
From there, a convoy of over 20 vehicles brought Yogi by road to Bhangra, a distance of 29 km. From Baramesh, the convoy traversed 4 km to Jharkhand’s border with Bengal along NH-60A. The convoy included vehicles carrying National Security Guard (NSG) commandoes who are at the core of the UP CM’s security retinue, UP Police and Jharkhand Police. Once inside Bengal, not a single Bengal police vehicle or personnel from the state police was deployed to provide security cover to the UP CM. There were no state policemen along the route the convoy took along the same national highway – NH-60A. Instead, CRPF jawans were deployed. These jawans were in two CRPF trucks that travelled about half a km ahead of the convoy.
Amid BJP’s cry over the state repeatedly denying landing rights to Yogi’s helicopter since Sunday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said from her dharna manch in the city’s Metro channel, “We signed an agreement with a helicopter company sometime in January to hire its choppers for our party. I paid the agreement money from the Trinamool party fund. The company later told us that they are under pressure and refunded the money. All political parties should take note of this and take pre-emptive steps.” Mamata, however, did not mention her UP counterpart. On complaints by BJP leaders about denial of guest house facilities to them in the state, the Bengal CM said, “When I visited Maharashtra and Bihar, I was not allowed to stay at any government guest house. I have not forgotten this.”
The UP CM’s convoy reached the meeting ground at Bhangra around 4.30 p.m. Apprehensions of Purulia and state BJP leaders about possible obstructions in the convoy’s path were set at rest with Trinamool strongman Abhisekh Banerjee cancelling his planned visit to Purulia’s Aghorpur, near the Purulia-Bokaro border, to address a party meeting. Though the district Trinamool went ahead with the meeting, its supporters stayed away from the path of Yogi’s convoy.
Waiting for Yogi at the meeting venue – a private ground by the party – were state BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh and Rahul Sinha. Some 30,000 people had turned up to hear Yogi speak. Purulia BJP leaders said, “We went ahead with the meeting despite complete non-cooperation by the administration which denied us permission to hold it and withheld landing rights for Yogiji’s helicopter.” Another BJP leader who refused to go on record alleged, “We could have brought many more people to the meeting but the local Trinamool warned bus, truck and van owners not to rent their vehicles to our party. Trinamool leaders had even warned the local bamboo association to ensure that no bamboo poles reached the meeting ground.”
Addressing the meeting, Yogi said, “Trinamool goons are looting development funds which are not reaching the poor here.”
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA