Kolkata, May 13 (IANS): BJP President Amit Shah's scheduled rally in West Bengal's Baruipur on Monday was cancelled after the landowner who had rented out his property withdrew his consent, a party spokesperson said here.
"The rally at Baruipur stands cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances," the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson said.
The land was rented out for the rally as well as for setting up a helipad.
Apart from the Baruipur rally, Shah was supposed to hold public meetings at South 24 Parganas' Canning and North 24 Parganas' Rajarhat.
The timings of the other two meetings remain unchanged.
"The landowner who had rented out the land for the meeting and also for the helipad, withdrew his permission citing that the property was earlier rented out to another political party for organising a rally," said sources privy to the development.
However, the saffron party alleged that they were forced to cancel the meeting due to the autocracy of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government.
"Mamata Banerjee is running autocracy in Bengal. Today (Monday) Amit Shah was supposed to hold a rally in Jadavpur (Baruipur is in the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency) for which we sought the permission 4-5 days ago. That time we were given a hope, but it was suddenly denied yesterday (Sunday) at 8.30 p.m.," the party said in its Twitter handle.
"This is a murder of democracy. The Election Commission must take action against it," it said.
Party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said: "The District Magistrate is simply working on the behalf of Trinamool. He took a dilly-dallying approach for giving permission for the rally and eventually, the permission was denied last night. The permission for landing of helicopter was initially given and then, it too was withdrawn."
He accused the official of not following the Election Commission's direction. "He does not deserve to hold his post and the polls would not be free and fair if he stays at his post. We will raise the issue before the commission," he added.