The state-level friction between the Congress and CM Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress took a dramatic turn on Tuesday after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled visit to Kolkata for April 23 had to be cancelled.
His party alleged that at the behest of the TMC, the local administration, specifically the police, has not granted permission for the visit. According to the Congress, the party waited until 6pm on Tuesday, April 21; but as permission was not granted, it was no longer possible to make preparations for the event.
Rahul Gandhi remains keen to undertake a visit to Bengal; therefore, a fresh request for administrative permission will be submitted for either April 25 or 26, news agency ANI reported citing Congress sources.
What TMC said
TMC minister Shashi Panja reacted by saying that applications for public meetings need to be sent through a Suvidha Portal “2-7 days before the public meeting”.
“This rule applies to all public meetings. All political parties need to take permission like this,” she said.
Further, she argued that the TMC government at present was in caretaker capacity and thus could answer about his visit: “The Election Commission can answer that.”
The EC had not yet reacted, at the time of the filing of this report.
The Congress and TMC have coordinated as Opposition parties against the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, and Mamata Banerjee was briefly part of the INDIA bloc too, but in Bengal they remain at loggerheads. The Congress is contesting alone in the West Bengal assembly elections for 2026, having not aligned with the Left Front either.
The BJP is the main Oposition in the state and is running an aggressive campaign.