Rahul Gandhi’s helicopter denied permission to land in West Bengal’s Siliguri

Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s helicopter was denied permission to land in West Bengal’s Siliguri police ground, where he is scheduled to address a public meeting on Sunday. The rally was to be held at the Dagapur ground, located on the outskirts of Siliguri, which is part of Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency.

The police cited lack of space as the reason for denying permission. “We can’t give the permission for the helicopter to land at the Siliguri Police commissionerate ground since a lot of vehicles are parked there,” said BL Meena, Siliguri Police commissioner.

Accusing the state government of sabotaging the Congress president’s rally, party’s candidate from Darjeeling Shankar Malakar said, “The police should have conveyed its decision much earlier so that we could have scouted for an alternative site for the helicopter to land. We need at least 48 hours to arrange these things. Rahul Gandhi’s rally can’t certainly be held on April 14.”

On whether the rally will take place, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya in Kolkata said, “Everything has become uncertain.”

Darjeeling will go to polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 18.

“We had written to the Siliguri Police commissioner on April 7 seeking permission for Rahul Gandhi’s helicopter to land at the police commissionerate ground in Siliguri. But today the police commissioner’s office informed us over telephone that they cannot give us permission,” added Malakar.

Meena, however, denied receiving the letter seeking permission for the helicopter to land on April 7.

Senior TMC leader and state tourism minister Gautam Deb refused to comment.

In February, BJP leaders alleged that the state government denied permission for helicopters of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to land in Purulia forcing him to travel by car from Jharkhand.

https://www.hindustantimes.com