Kolkata: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha election campaign rally which was scheduled on Sunday in Siliguri has been cancelled after the police denied permission due to lack of availability of helipad for the landing of his chopper which had become a bone of contention between the Trinamul Congress and BJP recently over the rallies by BJP chief Amit Shah and some other party leaders in the state.

So far Mr Gandhi has addressed two rallies in the state. He was supposed to address his third rally at the Dagapur ground near Siliguri under the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency which will go to  polls on April 18.

The district Congress leaders said that they had sought permission for the rally and a helipad from the Siliguri police.

Slamming the Trinamul government for denial of permission, Congress candidate from Darjeeling Shankar Malakar claimed, “On April 7, we wrote to the Siliguri police commissioner Bharat Lal Meena seeking permission for Mr Gandhi’s helicopter to land at the police commissionerate ground. But today his office informed us that they have  not given us permission.”