TMC takes out rally to counter BJYM's bike campaign

The TMC has embarked on a rally across the state to counter BJP youth wing BJYM's motorbike campaign that resumed today after a two-day break.
The Calcutta High Court had on Friday directed the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members to halt its bike rally for two days in the wake of clashes between the members of the of the saffron party and the TMC. Several workers of the two parties were injured in Friday's clashes.
The "Sampriti rally" (harmony rally) will be the TMC's answer to the BJP's 'Sankalpa Pratirodh Yatra' in the state, a senior leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led party said.

"The BJP is trying to gain foothold in Bengal with its own brand of communal politics ahead of the upcoming panchayat polls. The Sampriti rally will be our answer to the saffron party's statewide campaign," a senior TMC leader said.
Sources in the TMC said the party will take the rally to the nooks and corners of the state.
"The Sampriti rally has already started at various places. It will be conducted in each and every block of the state this month," TMC general secretary Subrata Bakshi said.

The upcoming panchayat polls in the state, scheduled in the middle of this year, will be a crucial test for the TMC and the BJP, ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP has been making steady inroads into the state to emerge as the main opposition party in Bengal, which has 30 per cent Muslim electorates.
The party has mocked the TMC and said its leaders suffer from "fear psychosis".
"They can conduct as many rallies as they want but the people of Bengal very well know that the TMC government is only interested in Muslim appeasement," BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, the party's national secretary Rahul Sinha and senior leader Mukul Roy flagged off the 'Sankalpa Pratirodh Yatra' rally today from Swami Vivekananda's ancestral house in north Kolkata.

The eight-day motorbike rally that started from New Digha in East Midnapore district last Thursday is scheduled to culminate at Cooch Behar in the northern part of the state.