Huge BJP rally in Kolkata, slogans against Mamata
Thousands of party workers raised incessant slogans, many of them mocking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the BJP on Monday virtually painted parts of central and North Kolkata saffron by taking out a massive rally backing the new CAA citizenship law.
Holding aloft 15,000 party flags and 3,000 tricolours which fluttered on a chilly winter afternoon, the BJP workers and top state party leaders marched from Subodh Mallick Square in the city hub to near revolutionary leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose”s statue at Shyambazar Five Point Crossing in North Kolkata in an impressive show of strength.
Led by the party”s Working President J.P. Nadda in an open jeep, with other top state party leaders walking on the road, the Bharatiya Janata Party”s ”Abhinandan Yatra” (Thanksgiving rally) was organised to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for passing the Citizenship Amendment Act, which the party hopes would have a huge bearing in the eastern state by giving citizenship to lakhs of refugees – mainly Bengali Hindus – who came as refugees to West Bengal from East Pakistan (later Bangladesh).
