After TMC’s Kolkata roadshow, CPM alleges obstruction to campaign

A day after a massive roadshow took place in the heart of Kolkata, with Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee campaigning for former BJP leader Babul Supriyo, who’s now contesting Ballygunge Assembly by-election as a TMC candidate, CPM candidate Saira Shah Halim has alleged that she has been denied permissions to hold public meetings, several times.

Saira, actor Naseeruddin Shah’s niece, in a press conference on Friday, stated that right from the time her name was announced as the CPM candidate, “we have been made to face various hurdles in the campaign”.

“I believe that it’s a democratic right that we can campaign and it has to be a peaceful campaign in an electoral process, however, this very vital democratic right has been denied many times,” she said, adding that seven of her applications, four for street corner meetings and three-four processions that covered important parts of the Ballygunge constituency have been rejected.

“Why rejected, we don’t know. If we are in Opposition, why has this democratic right been snatched away from us? We need to ask this because this is not healthy for a thriving democracy,” she said.

The Left candidate said that this prevented the campaign from reaching the voters. “Various organisations have come forth in support of my candidature and these political campaign efforts have been specifically targeted. We believe that the TMC apprehending massive backlash against its candidate as well as its undemocratic governance has exerted its pressure to which election commission and the police have succumbed,” a release issued on Saira’s behalf concluded.

Meanwhile, Babul is actively campaigning for the bypoll. A substantial section of the constituency has Muslim voters. Babul’s past association with the BJP has not been favoured by a section of these voters.

The Trinamool leaders, however, are going all out to persuade voters, saying that when they vote, it would be for the party. Babul too has been meeting voters, including Muslims, to put his point forward.

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