With the Railways citing unavailability of coaches and rakes for failure to meet the Trinamool Congress request for a special train to take protesters to Delhi, over alleged delay in release of funds for the MNREGS scheme, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee hit out at the Modi government. He accused the government of ensuring that the Railways “shamelessly” said no after accepting a deposit.
As per the Indian Railways website, an interested party can book a maximum of 10 coaches on fixed tariff rates, and an entire train – a maximum of 24 coaches – on the same rates, including at least two seating and luggage rakes.
The registration amount for booking of a coach up to seven days is Rs.50,000 per coach. Beyond this, an additional Rs 10,000 is charged per day. For the train, the registration amounts to Rs 9,00,000. If it is a train that is bigger than 18 passenger coaches, an additional Rs 50,000 is levied per coach.
In the past, several political parties have utilised trains to transport their supporters for protests.
* Shiv SenaApril 2023
This April, Shiv Sena workers travelled by two special trains from Maharashtra to Ayodhya, carrying banners that said ‘Chalo Ayodhya’. Among the travellers, who numbered more than 3,000, was Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shindewho is in a tussle with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena function to establish Hindutva credentials.
* TIPRA Motha, Dec 2022
Towards the end of 2022, and ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, the tribal outfit hired a train from the Northeast Frontier Railway to hold a demonstration in Delhi to press for its core demand of Greater Tipraland.
The TIPRA Motha, contesting its first Assembly elections, had emerged as the main Opposition in the polls of February 2023.
However, its Greater Tipraland demand has been hanging fire.
* BJPSept 2022
In September 2022, the BJP hired seven trains to bring party members and supporters from different parts of West Bengal to Kolkata for a ‘Nabanna Abhijan (March to Secretariat)’, to protest against alleged corrupt practices of the TMC government.
Senior Bengal BJP leader Rahul Sinha claimed at the time that the TMC-run administration was “trying to create hurdles in the way” of supporters willing to come to the city to join the rally.
“Our supporters were prevented from boarding a special train from Alipurduar to Sealdah on Monday evening and even lathicharged by state police. The train, however, left later with our activists and supporters,” Sinha said.
He also declared that seven trains with BJP supporters were headed to Kolkata – three from North Bengal and four from south – “overcoming opposition from the police and ruling party cadres”.
* TDP, Feb 2019
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu led a protest against the Centre over the issue of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh in February 2019, as part of which two special trains were hired to ferry people to New Delhi.
As per official records, “The General Administration Department of the state released Rs 1.12 crore to hire the trains with 20 compartments each from the South Central Railway.” The trains left from Anantapur and Srikakulam.
A year earlier, the Naidu-led TDP had broken its alliance with the BJP over the issue, seemingly with an eye on the Assembly elections of 2019.
The move, however, had not paid off for Naidu, with the TDP decimated by its rival YSRCP. Come 2024 and the next Assembly elections, the TDP has been making overtures to the BJP for a return to the NDA, but the BJP has kept him hanging.
Meanwhile, Naidu is in jail on several charges.
* BJP, Oct 2013
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Amidst mobilisation efforts in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP hired 10 trains to ferry its supporters to Patna for a rally by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
“The party has booked 10 special trains, with 18 bogies each, for the rally,” senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav then said. Besides, over 3,000 buses were booked for transporting people from various parts of the state.
A total of 91 MLAs, 12 MPs and office-bearers travelled across the state to drum up huge support for the rally.
