New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS): A day after claiming that the Union minister Shantanu Thakur was arrested by the West Bengal police during his 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra', BJP's Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh alleged on Wednesday that the Mamata Banerjee-led government is intentionally disrupting the Yatra of all the four Union ministers from the state.

Ghosh told IANS that the state administration had not only arrested Thakur in an undemocratic manner, but it is also disrupting the Yatra of the other three Union ministers from the state -- John Barla, Subhas Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik.

"The way the Mamata Banerjee government is behaving is not only undemocratic, but also unconstitutional. For the first time in the country, Union ministers are being stopped or arrested for taking out a Yatra without any reason. The state government is using all its powers to disrupt the Yatra, harassing the BJP workers and supporters," Ghosh said.

On West Bengal police denying the arrest of Thakur, Ghosh said, "There is no truth in West Bengal police's claims. He (Thakur) was arrested along with other BJP workers. They (Trinamool) are saying that we are spreading Covid-19. What about the football matches organised by the ruling party in Bengal which were attended by thousands of people? This is a double standard and the state government is intentionally disrupting the Yatra of the Union ministers."

On Tuesday, the BJP's Bengal unit had claimed that Shantanu Thakur and MLA Subrata Thakur were arrested by the police along with other BJP workers.

Newly-appointed Union ministers are taking out the 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' in their respective states to seek people's blessings and to explain the works carried out by the Narendra Modi government.

As per the plan, all the 39 newly-inducted ministers in the Union council of ministers will seek people's blessings in the three days of Jan Ashirvad Yatra in 19 states. Together, all the 39 ministers will cover 19,567 km, 212 Lok Sabha constituencies and 265 districts of the country.