News Analysis India

Tag: Mamata Banerjee Attack

  • Bengal CID takes over probe into Nandigram incident in which Mamata Banerjee was injured

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal CID on Saturday took over the investigation into the Nandigram incident in which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was injured during her election campaign, a senior officer of the agency said.

    A team of CID officers will soon be visiting the spot in the Purba Medinipur district and record statements of the witnesses, he said.

    A case has already been lodged at the Nandigram police station on the basis of a complaint filed by TMC leader Shiekh Sufiyan over the incident, which happened on March 10, the officer said.

    The case has been filed under IPC section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) against unknown persons, he said.

    Banerjee alleged that she was attacked in the Birulia Bazar area, in which she was injured in her left leg, besides hips, arm, chest, neck and shoulder as she fell down.

    Following the incident, the Election Commission suspended the chief minister’s Director Security Vivek Sahay and Purba Medinipur’s Superintendent of Police Pravin Prakash.

    Besides, it transferred district magistrate Vibhu Goel to a non-election post, pointing to lapses in Banerjee’s security.

    The incident became a boiling issue ahead of the elections with Banerjee campaigning on a wheelchair, drawing sharp attacks from the opposition parties, including the BJP that termed it a ploy for “sympathy votes”.

  • BJP asks EC to make Mamata Banerjee’s treatment history public

    By ANI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer in the state, demanding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s treatment history at SSKM hospital to be made public.

    “The alleged attack has been used to extract the maximum possible political mileage. The Election Commission of India in its report today has ruled out the possibility of any such attack. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its cadre have attempted to use the Chief Minister’s purported injury which seems self-inflicted in order to gain sympathy and cause violence in different parts of the state,” reads the letter from the BJP state unit.

    The letter stated that TMC’s allegation on BJP regarding the attack is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

    “It is necessary that truth be brought out before public so that staged incidents do not repeat to deceive the masses and manipulate their voting choices,” it added.

    On March 10, Banerjee had alleged that she was pushed by a few unidentified people during her election campaigning. Later, she was brought to Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital by road from Nandigram.

    Banerjee sustained “severe bone injuries” on her left foot and ankle as well as bruises and injuries on her shoulder, forearm and neck, according to the report of her initial medical examination.

    The Chief Minister was discharged from the hospital on March 12.

    West Bengal is likely to witness a triangular contest this time with TMC, Congress-Left alliance and the BJP in the fray.

    Elections to 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

  • Two days after ‘attack’, CM Mamata Banerjee discharged from Kolkata hospital

    By Online Desk
    Two days after Mamata Banerjee received injuries in Nandigram, the TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister was released from Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital on Friday evening.

    She was discharged from the hospital following improvement in health conditions. She was spotted coming out in a wheelchair. 

    Doctors took the decision after the 66-year-old TMC supremo repeatedly requested them to discharge her from the medical establishment.

    Banerjee greeted several party activists gathered outside the Woodburn Block of the hospital.

    She left the hospital in her vehicle for her Kalighat residence.

    Her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, party colleagues and state minister Firhad Hakim were present at the medical establishment.

    “Her condition has improved a lot and she repeatedly insisted to be discharged from the hospital. She will be able to move with restrictions but she needs to come back for another round of check-up within a week,” the doctor said.

    The Trinamool Congress chief had suffered injuries on her left leg and waist as she fell on the ground following an alleged attack during her campaign for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.(With PTI inputs)

  • TMC trying to stir political crisis in Bengal by floating conspiracy theories on Nandigram incident: BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The BJP on Friday accused the TMC of trying to stir a political crisis in West Bengal by floating conspiracy theories on the March 10 Nandigram incident, in which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was injured, as the ruling party in the state “is losing ground from under its feet”.

    Asserting that the BJP has demanded a full-fledged inquiry into the incident and wished a speedy recovery of Banerjee so that she can participate in her electoral campaigning, party spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said even senior TMC leaders are “distorting the state administration’s version” of the incident to give credence to the conspiracy angle for political gains.

    “However hard the TMC leaders may try to float conspiracy theories, they are only dishing out false information on the Nandigram incident. They are trying to create a political crisis. Their insinuations of EC are akin to showing disrespect to the Constitution,” Bhattacharya told reporters.

    ALSO READ | ‘Attack on Mamata part of deep-rooted conspiracy’: TMC delegation meets EC, demands high-level probe

    He said it was in TMC’s bad taste to link the Nandigram incident with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe at Banerjee during the BJP’s Brigade rally on March 7 over her failed attempt to ride an electric scooter solo.

    “The prime minister had never said that the CM will get injured in Nandigram. He had said that had Banerjee fallen from the scooter and suffered injuries, she would have blamed its manufacturer,” he said.

    Bhattacharya said that the prime minister had made a comparison between Banerjee’s failed attempt to ride a scooter with her electoral battle in Nandigram only to signify her impending defeat in the seat.

    “Every orator has his/her own style of speaking. It is in poor taste to link the PM’s comment made on March 7 with the injury suffered by Banerjee on March 10 in an accident,” he said.​

    ALSO READ | Attacks and injuries shaped Mamata’s four-decade-long political career​​Referring to the attack on BJP chief J P Nadda’s convoy in South 24 Parganas district in December last year, he said that the TMC had then made light of the incident unlike the BJP’s response to the Nandigram incident.

    “We want her (Banerjee) to take part in the electoral process,” he said.

    Response to the outreach programme of Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP candidate in Nandigram seat and former aide of Banerjee, over the last few days shows that the TMC will suffer poll reverses in the constituency.

    “The Centre never sought to topple an elected government. The TMC will be defeated by the people in the upcoming assembly elections,” he said.

    Elections to the 294-member assembly will be held from March 27 to April 19.

    Results will be declared on May 2.