Kolkata: The Cockroach Janata Party has alleged that its Kolkata meet-up at 5 pm today has had to be cancelled after owners of the venue received threats from Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.Fresh from the protests at Jantar Mantar which led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the CJP has said that it is keen to be a pressure group and lead the cause of government school education.“Our scheduled Kolkata Meet-Up at Bharat Sabha Hall in North Kolkata has now been cancelled after the owners received threats from BJP leaders,” spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka wrote on X.Ranka also wrote that six other halls refused permission, “stating massive pressure from the state.”The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Bengal took power in early May.The Bharat Sabha is owned by the Indian Association, founded in 1876 as a socio-political non-profit by Surendranath Banerjea and others including Ananda Mohan Bose and Monomohan Ghose.When reached at the landline number of the venue, a functionary at the Bharat Sabha Hall claimed that the CJP had not booked the venue in advance. “They arrived this morning at 10.30 or 10.45 but I could not give them the venue because an event would be happening and it could go on till the time they wanted the venue for,” the person who refused to identify themselves said.When asked if the BJP had threatened the hall, they claimed it had not.Interestingly, the association’s website features a quote from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay – whose ‘Vande Mataram’ the BJP government at the Union has made mandatory at public gatherings, schools, and government functions – reposing faith in its “ability to be moved on behalf of the Indian public.”Rajeeb Sarkar, the station in-charge of Bowbazar, the police station within the jurisdiction of which the Bharat Sabha Hall falls, told The Wire that police did not have any information of such threats.Ranka wrote in his X post that the move “reinforces the fact that the BJP is scared”. “And while we will indeed miss out on interacting with the lovely Cockroaches of Bengal, we promise to make up for it with a much bigger event very soon,” he said.“Most importantly, Cockroaches of Bengal will continue to visit govt schools and push the Bengal govt to get them fixed,” he added.This last comment is significant because eight men, one of whom is a BJP leader, have been arrested for the murder of Sheikh Mohammad Mafik, the father of a CJP activist who had gone to a village school in Bankura district’s Indas to document the status of the availability of basic amenities.This is not the CJP’s first brush with venue cancellations in a BJP-ruled state.On August 13, a CJP volunteers’ meeting at a New Delhi banquet hall was forced to conclude and reconvene at a public park. The outfit’s leadership said that venue owners had similarly cited “pressure from above.”Even before the Jantar Mantar protests of July, where almost a lakh had gathered despite the closure of Metro stations, the suspension of internet in the area and the spectre of police brutality, the CJP had struggled with permission to organise meets. In Jaipur, in mid-June, for instance, police initially withdrew permission and then allowed the meeting with a few conditions.