Dissenting state government employees demanding dearness allowance at central government rates took out a huge rally in Calcutta on Saturday to mark 100 days of a sit-in demonstration started by them on Shaheed Minar grounds.

According to the estimates of Sangrami Joutha Mancha, a platform of multiple organisations demanding DA, a crowd of around 50,000 people from all over the state joined the rally that was taken out in the backyard of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s home.

“The rally was a huge success. State government employees from Darjeeling to Kakdwip joined the rally,” Bhaskar Ghosh, the convener of the Mancha said.

“We have set an example of how a peaceful protest should be. Because there was provocation from outside to disrupt the rally, but our compatriots maintained peace.”

On Saturday, state government employees gathered at Shaheed Minar in Calcutta where the Mancha was running a demonstration for the last 100 days. The gathering moved towards the Hazra crossing in south Calcutta.

A little after 1pm, the rally marched towards Harish Mukherjee Road. Law enforcers were deployed in huge numbers to avoid any unpleasant incident, and crossed the residence of Abhishek,who is also an MP and the national general secretary of the Trinamul.

Harish Mukherjee Road is a few blocks away from Harish Chatterjee Street, the official residence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The rally then came back to the Hazra crossing where a public meeting was held. The meeting was attended by members of the Opposition parties.

The leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders participated in the meeting. Srijan Bhattacharya and Kalatan Dasgupta represented the CPM, and Abdul Mannan, Asit Mitra, and Koustav Bagchi came from the Congress.

“Before we seek votes for our own parties we must say, no vote to Mamata. Who wins the polls will be decided by the people but this authoritarian chief minister must go,” Adhikari said in the rally.

He asked why the hearing for the DA case was repeatedly delayed by the Supreme Court.

“I know what is going on behind these delays. But all the conspiracies of Mamata Banerjee will end,” he said.

Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the Nandigram MLA must be convicted of contempt of court.

State government employees currently get 36 per cent less DA than their counterparts in the central government.

Chief secretary H.K Dwivedi and other senior officials had recently met representatives of the Mancha on the order of Calcutta High Court to find an amicable solution to the face-off. However, the talks failed.