Trinamul has again prodded Delhi police for permission to conduct its proposed dharna in the national capital in October, even as the party’s supreme leadership has decided to go ahead with the programme — with necessary modifications — even if there is no administrative clearance.
Trinamul’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, sent a letter to Delhi police on Wednesday, asking for an update on the party’s August 31 application for permission to hold demonstrations at Jantar Mantar, outside Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh’s Lodhi Estate residence and at Krishi Bhavan, between 10am and 6pm on October 2 and 3.
On August 30, Trinamul said it was denied clearance by Delhi police — which reports to Union home minister Amit Shah — for the use of the Ramlila Maidan in the national capital as the venue for the party’s proposed mega anti-Centre rally on Gandhi Jayanti, to be attended by party supremo and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
If permission is not granted, the event, for which Trinamul had initially decided on a headcount of several lakh workers and supporters from Bengal, would have to be re-drawn, with either a new structure or a different, available venue.
“She (Mamata) has said we will go ahead with the programme, in a different form, irrespective of permission. She has said on Gandhi Jayanti, nobody can be stopped from accessing Raj Ghat (Gandhi's memorial in Delhi). She will simply conduct a dharna there with her party’s MPs and MLAs,” said a source close to the chief minister.
“She is firm on the programme and it will take place anyhow,” he added.
The idea of the “Abar Dilli Cholo (Let’s go to Delhi again)” programme was first floated by Trinamul national general-secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee on March 29, at a public meeting in the city, and publicly endorsed a day later by his aunt, Mamata, at the end of her 31-hour Red Road dharna against Bengal's alleged stepmotherly treatment by the BJP-led Centre.
In their speeches on the Martyrs’ Day event of Trinamul on July 21, both Mamata and Abhishek had spoken of the party's plans for the October programme.
They said they would demand not only funds due to Bengal frozen by the Centre, which amount to over Rs 1.15 lakh crore, but also ouster of the Narendra Modi government.
