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Tejasvi Surya To Lead BJP's 'Nabanna Chalo' March, Mamata Govt Shuts Down Secretariat For Sanitisation

The BJP youth wing is marching to 'Nabanna', the West Bengal state secretariat, to protest against the alleged 'deteriorating law and order situation' in the state.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya arrives in Kolkata on Wednesday evening.
Twitter/Tejasvi Surya
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya arrives in Kolkata on Wednesday evening.

The youth wing of BJP in West Bengal is marching to the state secretariat, Nabanna, on Thursday, protesting against the Mamata Banerjee government, alleging there has been a deterioration in the ‘law and order’ situation in the state.

Tejasvi Surya, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha will lead the march. Before the march, he visited the home of Swami Vivekananda on Thursday morning.

However, the West Bengal government has shut down the secretariat for two days for “sanitisation”.

The protest comes after BJP leader Manish Shukla was killed on Sunday in Titagarh in North 24 Parganas.

Here’s what you need to know about the protest:

Mamata Govt sites Shaheen Bagh ruling, no permission for march

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who herself has led many sit in protests in her time as a the opposition leader in Bengal, sited the Supreme Court ruling on Shaheen Bagh and did not give permission for the march to be held on Thursday

Hindustan Times quoted a letter to the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from the special secretary of the home department of West Bengal as saying, “You are probably aware that, only a few hours back, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has given a judgement in Civil Appeal No 3282/2020 wherein the Hon’ble Apex Court has held certain principles regarding protest and occupation of sites and public places and public ways. You will kindly appreciate that we are duty-bound to comply with the solemn order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.”

Banerjee herself had led several marches against the CAA and NRC in Kolkata in December 2019.

Nabanna is shut for sanitisation

On Wednesday night, the West Bengal government issued an order saying that the Writers Building in Kolkata and Nabanna in Howrah will be shut for sanitisation.

BJP claimed that this was done because TMC was afraid.

State secretariat officials, however, told PTI that the decision to close down Nabanna for regular sanitisation on October 8 and 9 was taken “a few weeks backs and it has nothing to do with the BJP’s programme”.

BJP to go ahead with march, but some leaders wonder why

Sources in BJP told PTI that the government decided to shut down Nabanna on the protest march day to take the steam out of the campaign.

“After the BJP announced its Nabanna Abhiyan programme to protest against worsening law and order, Mamata didi declared holiday (shutdown) in the secretariat for two days,” they said.

The Telegraph reported that one section of the BJP in Bengal raised doubts about the march since no one would be present at the secretariat.

The report quoted a BJP leader, who was not named, as saying “Usually, marches to Nabanna are stopped by police midway and party leaders go to Nabanna to hand over a memorandum or its list of demands. If the state secretariat remains closed, what is the point of the rally?”

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.