Nothing more shameful than a CM sitting on dharna: Yogi Adityanath in Bengal

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath managed to reach Purulia, West Bengal from Bokaro, Jharkhand by road today after being denied permission to enter the state via a helicopter.

Adityanath was on Tuesday denied permission yet again to land his chopper in West Bengal and decided to take the road route to enter the state. He was previously denied permission by the West Bengal government to land his chopper in South Dinajpur district on Sunday. 

Shortly after reaching Purulia, the Uttar Pradesh CM addressed a rally wherein he slammed his Bengal counterpart for staging a sit-in and "protecting a corrupt officer".

"Nothing can be more shameful for a democracy than a Chief Minister sitting on a dharna," he stated. 

Earlier in the day, he stated that the Mamata Banerjee-government "is embroiled in undemocratic and unconstitutional activities and that is the reason why a 'sanyasi' and 'yogi' like me is not being allowed to step on the soil of Bengal."

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister flew to Jharkhand on today and travelled to Purulia by road.

"Mamata ji must accept that one should not misuse the administration in a democracy. The manner in which the administration in West Bengal is functioning should not be acceptable at all," Adityanath said.

Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday stated that her government had "got into an agreement with a helicopter company". 

"We had done an advance booking, an agreement was signed on Jan 15," she said.  

"It is sad that they informed us on Feb 1 that they will not provide us the helicopters, they backed out," Banerjee noted. 

The public rally by Adityanath on Tuesday comes amid a full-blown face-off between West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government and the Centre that erupted on Sunday after a CBI team moved to arrest West Bengal Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, which in turn detained five officials causing a high voltage drama.