The Birbhum leg of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Friday exited Bengal amid charges of new hurdles by state police, which issued new curbs on the Congress event citing Madhyamik exams.
Madhyamik exams started in Bengal at 9.45am on Friday.
"The superintendents of police of Murshidabad and Birbhum started calling our leaders from Thursday night asking them to stop the Yatra. I was informed (by an SP) that there is the Madhyamik examination on Friday and that is why they want Rahul Gandhi ji to start from Murshidabad at 6am and the police will escort his convoy up to the Jharkhand border," said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Bengal Congress president.
"There was no problem with allowing the Yatra to travel the district once examinees entered their centres. However, we did not go for any confrontations with the government," Chowdhury added.
After a prolonged debate over multiple phone calls till early Friday, the police finally agreed to allow the Yatra to cross the district but with new restrictions. A Congress leader in Birbhum said they decided to respect the curbs "as our Delhi leaders did not want to be involved in any confrontation with the Mamata Banerjee government at this moment".
The new curbs delayed Rahul's Birbhum from Murshidabad on Friday. He reached Birbhum district around noon instead of 10am as previously planned. Then, he reached Rampurhat where he waited for around two hours inside a tent for lunch and meetings with people. Around 6.30pm, Rahul finally left Bengal and reached Jharkhand's Pakur.
Among the many curbs, Birbhum police said not more than two small vehicles could follow the "VIP carcade" and no bus would be allowed.
That is why Rahul had to travel the route on the last day of the Bengal leg of his Yatra in a red convertible without stopping to meet people.
A Congress leader said Rahul took three hours to travel 41km from Lalgola to Behrampore in Murshidabad on Thursday as he frequently met people en route. "On Friday, he took only half of the time to cover 44km to reach the Birbhum border," said a Congress leader. "Thousands of people stood on both sides of the route but he could not even stop to shake hands or talk to people waiting for him for hours," he said.
Rahul stopped for less than a minute en route and gave chocolates to children standing along the road. The Congress had set up a small stage for Rahul to address the crowd for a minute but the cops did not allow it.
The trend of posters against Chowdhury continued on the final day, too.
"Adhir Chowdhury wants Rahulji's Yatra to only pass through Muslim areas to divide Muslim votes," a poster carried by Muslim women in Birbhum's Muraroi read as Rahul's vehicle passed by.
In the evening, four Congress workers, including state media coordinator Sourav Roy, were detained following a heated exchange with cops as a police vehicle slightly hit an ambulance accompanying Rahul's convoy. A police officer said the ambulance with Congress workers was trying to get close to Rahul's car.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh tried to present an amicable overview of the scenario.
"Our workers are excited by the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. They will say many things in their excitement. But officially what I'd say is the view of the Indian National Congress. The view of the party is that there is an INDIA group, there are 27 parties. We have arrived at a mutually satisfactory, mutually acceptable seat-sharing agreement," he said.
