News Analysis India

Tag: Mamata Banerjee

  • Will the farmers who paved Mamata’s road to power in Bengal now be her nemesis?

    Express News Service
    If there is a section of people that can bring about a tectonic shift in Bengal’s political scenario, it’s the farmers. It was a group of agitating farmers that paved the way to the Chief Minister’s chair for Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee. In 2007, Mamata led a three-year-long violence-laced resistance movement in Singur and Nandigram that put an end to 34 years of Left rule.

    Fourteen years later, as Bengal readies for a volatile election, farmers have again taken to the streets. They are at the forefront of a protest — not only in the state but across the country — for the past 100-odd days against the three farm laws.

    The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act were rushed through the Parliament last monsoon.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee trained her guns at the “anti-farmer” NDA government and asked them to repeal the “draconian laws”. The Bengal Assembly was the sixth state to pass a resolution against the laws last month with the support of the CPM and Congress.

    Amid the impasse with the Modi government, farmers’ unions have pledged to campaign against the BJP in poll-bound Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

    In a bid to mobilise the farmers, a union-led by All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) general secretary Hannan Mollah held a mahapanchayat at the Ram Leela grounds in Kolkata on March 12. Activist Medha Patkar, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Balbir Singh Rajewal and Krantikari Kisan Union leader Darshan Pal were part of the meeting.

    Speaking to The New Indian Express, Mollah said, “The nationwide protest will have a ripple effect in Bengal. This protest has made every farmer in the state and country aware of the black laws. Had it been only a western India issue, thousands of farmers would not have joined our call to protest in the eastern state of Bengal.”

    He asserted that the movement has already left its mark in electoral ballots cast in Punjab where the BJP drew a blank.

    “We have only one demand, repeal the farm laws. We don’t want anything more or less. During our meeting, we won’t say anything in support of political parties but we are only going to campaign against the BJP,” he added.

    However, the animosity among 70 lakh farmers in India’s largest food-producing state is not reserved for the Modi government alone. According to reports, there is palpable anger among farmers in Bardhaman and Hooghly where potato prices have fallen drastically.

    Farmers in Bengal, the second-highest producer of potatoes in the country, have been demanding implementation of MSP owing to falling market rates.

    Despite the standoff at the national capital, the BJP has repeatedly tried to reach out to farmers in Bengal, over a meal at their house or through collection of grains.

    The Prime Minister too during his visit to the state repeatedly attacked the Mamata Banerjee government for allegedly depriving local farmers of benefits under the Union government’s PM-Kisan cash assistance scheme.

    Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, all small and marginal farmers are entitled to receive up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support. The scheme also promises all landholding farmers’ families the financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per annum per family payable in three equal instalments of Rs 2000 each. The PM Kisan Yojana came into effect from December 1, 2018.

    READ| BJP’s big daddies to descend on Nandigram to campaign for Suvendu Adhikari

    The Chief Minister claimed that she had asked the central government to route the money through the state administration, but last month agreed to roll out the scheme in its original form.

    Rebutting the BJP’s claim, the state’s agriculture minister Asish Banerjee alleged that Bengal’s farmers are content with their cash assistance scheme. The Bengal government in its last budget increased the annual assistance offered under the ‘Krishak Bandhu’ scheme from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000.

    Banerjee, equating the farmers’ movement with the 1859 Indigo revolt in Nadia district, said that the central laws will render farmers poorer. “We are very confident about this election. The Mamata government has always reached out to the farmers and worked for their welfare. Even the farmers know that,” he added.

    However, it is very unlikely that the Congress-Left-ISF will be able to make electoral inroads due to farmers’ resentment against the TMC and BJP.

    “There is so much anger against the state government that national issues such as petrol price hike and farm laws won’t matter. This election will be fought on local issues. The state’s farmers are unhappy due to the deeply-ingrained corruption in the TMC. The only option for them is to select the other strong party, which is the BJP right now. The Left and Congress are electorally insignificant. This will be a two-way fight between the TMC and BJP,” said former Principal of Presidency College and political scientist Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay.

    The epicentre of Mamata’s rise to power — Nandigram — is again at the heart of the “Battle for Bengal”. In 2007, the TMC had vehemently protested against the then Left Front government’s futile bid to acquire farmland for a chemical hub. The March movement witnessed the death of 14 farmers at the hands of the state police. Now, flags of the saffron party grace the same place.

    Mamata is locking horns with her former protege Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP over differences with the TMC. Although Mamata was the face of the resistance, it was Adhikari who built the movement on the ground. According to reports, farmers in Nandigram are dissatisfied with the Chief Minister despite her efforts of returning their land, which remains uncultivable due to the presence of ground-deep concrete.

    “Although Mamata launched her movement against the Left from Nandigram, people will root for the ‘son of the soil’ Suvendu Adhikari. There is a section of Left voters who might vote for the BJP, as they did during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” Mukhopadhyay added.

    Meanwhile, the CPM is leaving no stone unturned in pointing out the TMC’s failures.

    “Bengal is an agrarian state. Mamata along with the Centre is equally responsible for the farmers’ condition. Look at the state of farmers in our state. Look at the crisis potato farmers are facing due to the fall in prices. Even during the time of the pandemic, the TMC failed to help the cultivators,” said CPM politburo member Mohammed Salim.

    A group of farm leaders from Delhi will host a panchayat at Nandigram on March 13. Will it again seal Mamata’s fate?

  • BJP leaders meet EC, demand independent inquiry into incident in Mamata got injured

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A BJP delegation comprising Union Minister Piyush Goyal and party general secretary Bhupender Yadav on Friday met Election Commission officials and demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in which TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got injured.

    The BJP delegation met poll panel officials hours after a six-member group of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders met the EC demanding a high-level probe into the alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister in Nandigram that led to her injury.

    Besides Goyal and Yadav, party leaders Sambit Patra, Anirban Ganguly and Swapan Dasgupta were also in the BJP delegation.

    Addressing reporters after the meeting, Yadav said the BJP has demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in West Bengal’s Nandigram on March 10 when Banerjee got injured.

    Yadav, a general secretary of the BJP, said, “The party also requested the election commission to make public the video of Banerjee’s rally in which she got injured.”

    ALSO READ: Two days after ‘attack’, CM Mamata Banerjee discharged from Kolkata hospital

    The BJP leader said once a candidate files nomination, the poll panel maintains a visual record of his public engagements.

    The saffron party also demanded that special observers be appointed for the Nandigram Assembly seat from where Banerjee is contesting against her protege-turned-adversary the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.

    Earlier in the day, a TMC delegation met the Election Commission and demanded a high-level probe into the alleged attack on Banerjee in Nandigram and claimed it was not an “unfortunate incident”, but a conspiracy.

    The TMC met the full EC team, including Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora, for over an hour and submitted a memorandum to it, highlighting how BJP leaders in West Bengal had threatened the chief minister through tweets and other remarks.

    In the memorandum, the TMC has made allegations against Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Nandigram in the upcoming state Assembly polls.

    TMC leaders had also met EC officials in Bengal on Thursday, following which the poll body sent a strongly-worded letter to the party on its memorandum over injuries to Banerjee during the campaign, saying it looks “undignified to even respond” to allegations that the poll panel is doing things in the state at the behest of a “particular party”.

  • 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 parliamentary delegation to meet EC in Delhi on March 12 over ‘attack’ on Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A parliamentary delegation of the Trinamool Congress will meet Election Commission officials in Delhi on Friday over concerns following the alleged attack on party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, party sources said on Thursday.

    Six TMC MPs from both the Houses of Parliament are expected to arrive in Delhi to join the delegation, a source said.

    A delegation of the party met poll panel officials in Kolkata on Thursday and later alleged that the “Election Commission did nothing despite there being reports of a possible attack on Banerjee”.

    ALSO READ | ‘Maintain calm:’ TMC chief appeals from hospital, says will campaign even on wheelchair

    Claiming that the attack was a “deep-rooted conspiracy to take the life of the TMC supremo”, party leaders said anti-social elements have been mobilised from the neighbouring states by the BJP in Nandigram to unleash violence.

    The EC can’t shun responsibility as it is in charge of the law-and-order situation in poll-bound West Bengal, it said.

    The Trinamool Congress supremo was injured in the leg after being allegedly pushed by unidentified people near a temple at Reyapara area during campaigning at Nandigram on Wednesday, where the BJP has pitted her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari against her.

    Banerjee alleged that she was pushed by four to five men while she was trying to get into the car, following which fell flat on her face.

  • BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari files nomination from Nandigram in high-stakes battle against Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI
    HALDIA: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari filed his nomination on Friday from the Nandigram seat where he will be fighting the upcoming assembly elections against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

    Adhikari filed his papers at the sub-divisional office in Haldia after leading a-km-long roadshow.

    Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani took part in the rally before Adhikari filed the nomination papers.

    WB: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari meets locals in Nandigram. He says, “My relationship with them is very old. Mamata Banerjee remembers them every 5 years when polls come. They will defeat her. I am also filing my nomination, I am a voter of Nandigram.” #WestBengalElections pic.twitter.com/9ckfZjfMNh
    — ANI (@ANI) March 12, 2021

    Adhikari, who switched over to the BJP in December, is up against the chief minister who decided to challenge him at his home ground.

    Adhikari won the Nandigram seat as a TMC candidate in 2016 by bagging over 67 per cent of the votes, defeating his nearest rival of the CPI by a margin of 81,230 votes.

    Banerjee had filed her nomination on Wednesday.

    The Left-led grand alliance has fielded CPI(M)’s youth leader Minakshi Mukherjee from the seat.

  • ‘Attack’ on Mamata: Bengal CM stable, responding well to treatment, says hospital

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The health condition of West Bengal Chief MInister Mamata Banerjee, who is nursing injuries suffered during poll campaigning at Nandigram, is stable and her improvement is satisfactory, doctors said on Friday.

    Banerjee slept well at night and is responding well to treatment, said doctors at the state-run SSKM hospital, where the TMC supremo was rushed to on Wednesday after being allegedly pushed by unknown people while campaigning for the assembly elections in Nandigram in Purba Medinipore district.

    “Our team will review her condition this morning. They may cut open the temporary plaster on her left leg to see how the injury has healed. A few medical tests might also be conducted,” a senior doctor told PTI.

    The swelling on her left ankle has subsided and she is feeling less pain in her neck, shoulder and waist, he said.

    “We generally advise patients with similar injuries as that of Banerjee at least three to four weeks of rest,” the doctor said.

    The 66-year-old chief minister will try out different kinds of wheelchairs soon, he added.

    Asked when Banerjee could be discharged from hospital, the doctor said the team would be assessing her health condition on Friday morning and take a call accordingly.

    The Trinamool Congress boss had suffered injuries on her left leg and waist as she fell on the ground following the alleged attack.

    She is undergoing treatment at the 12.5 special cabin of Woodburn Block at SSKM Hospital.

  • ‘Attack’ on Mamata: Six-member Trinamool delegation to meet EC in Delhi on Friday

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A six-member parliamentary delegation of the Trinamool Congress will meet Election Commission officials in Delhi on Friday over concerns following the alleged attack on TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the party sources said.

    Six TMC MPs from both the Houses of Parliament have flown to the capital to be part of the delegation which will meet the EC at 12 noon.

    The delegation comprises Derek O’Brien (Leader, AITC Parliamentary Party, Rajya Sabha), Saugata Roy (MP, Lok Sabha), Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (MP, Lok Sabha), Satabdi Roy (MP, Lok Sabha), Pratima Mondal (MP, Lok Sabha) and Santanu Sen (MP, Rajya Sabha).

    A delegation of the party also met poll panel officials in Kolkata on Thursday and later alleged that the “Election Commission did nothing despite there being reports of a possible attack on Banerjee”.

    ALSO READ | ‘Attack’ on Mamata: EC asks Bengal administration to be more cautious about security for VVIPs

    Claiming that the attack was a “deep-rooted conspiracy to take the life of the TMC supremo”, party leaders alleged that anti-social elements have been mobilised from the neighbouring states by the BJP in Nandigram to unleash violence.

    The EC can’t shun responsibility as it is in charge of the law-and-order situation in poll-bound West Bengal, it said.

    The Trinamool Congress supremo was injured in the leg after being allegedly pushed by unidentified people near a temple at Reyapara area during campaigning at Nandigram on Wednesday, where the BJP has pitted her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari against her.

    ALSO READ | Not to indulge in politics over CM’s injuries, want probe: BJP on visiting Mamata at hospital

    Banerjee alleged that she was pushed by four to five men while she was trying to get into the car, following which she fell flat on her face.

    The EC on Thursday sent a strongly-worded letter to the TMC on its memorandum over injuries to Banerjee during campaign, saying it looks “undignified to even respond” to allegations that the poll panel is doing things in the state at the behest of a “particular party”.

  • Attacks and injuries shaped Mamata’s four-decade-long political career

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee has earned for herself the image of the gutsy political leader, who has weathered physical attacks and injuries in her four-decade- long career to emerge stronger in her public life.

    Her comebacks after such incidents saw her attacking her opposition with greater ferocity.

    The TMC supremo’s image as a fearless fighter, endowed with nerves of steel and political acumen who can become one with legions of her supporters, took shape after one such deadly attack when she was hit on the head by a CPI-M youth leader in 1990 and had to be confined to a hospital bed for an entire month.

    Again in July 1993 Banerjee, then a Youth Congress member, was beaten up by the police when she lead a rally to Writers’ Buildings, the erstwhile secretariat, demanding voter photo identity cards.

    The rallyists had clashed with the police prompting the force to fire killing 14 Youth Congress activists.

    Banerjee was beaten up and then too she was under treatment in the hospital for a few weeks.

    The Bengal chief minister, who is presently facing one of the toughest political battles of her career, is in hospital yet again with her leg in a cast and complaints of chest pain after being injured in an alleged attack on Wednesday night at Nandigram hours after she filed her nomination for the seat.

    Banerjee has said that she was attacked by four to five men on that day.

    The battle is crucial this time as BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition, has thrown down the gauntlet and aims to stop her from returning to power for the third straight time.

    Nandigram is where she will take on her former protege and now BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.

    The place had played a significant role in her career as the historic anti-farmland acquisition movement led by her party there in 2007 in the face of violence and police bullets saw her emerging as a giant slayer.

    Riding the crest of the movement, she had led TMC to defeat the longest serving democratically elected communist regime of the world in 2011.

    The CPI-M;led Left Front had to bite the dust that year in West Bengal after helming the the state for 34 long years.

    A quick look at the 66-year-old leader’s political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.

    Banerjee, then Youth Congress leader, first came into the limelight after defeating CPI(M) stalwart and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee from Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency in 1984 riding the sympathy wave following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

    She, however, lost the 1989 Parliamentary polls.

    The attack on her on August 16, 1990 by DYFI leader Lalu Alam who hit her on the head with a stick had taken place at Hazra crossing in the city, the scene of many of her agitations, near her Kalighat residence.

    The attack had fractured her skull.

    The incident had made her a household name in the state and one of the tallest mass leaders of West Bengal Congress on the same pedestal as stalwarts like A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Somen Mitra.

    Banerjee was in her 30s then.

    Three years later in January 1993, Banerjee, then president of the state Youth Congress, had stormed into Writers’ Buildings with a hearing-and speech-impaired girl heavily pregnant after being raped by a CPI-M man.

    She had led a three-hour-long dharna in front of the chambers of the then chief minister Jyoti Basu alleging that the rapist had not been arrested because of his political affiliations.

    Banerjee had sat with the victim on the floor virtually laying a seige on the chief minister’s office demanding immediate arrest of the rapist and an audience from Basu.

    After the police failed to persuade her, a huge contingent of the force had reached Writers’ Buildings, dragged her by the hair, put her in a prison van and whisked her to the nearby Lalbazar central police lock up.

    In 2000-01, just two years after she broke away from the Congress and formed Trinamool Congress, her vehicle was repeatedly attacked at Keshpur and Chamakaitala in West Midnapore district, where several TMC workers were killed during the bloody turf war between the party and CPI(M).

    Crude bombs were hurled at her car in 2001 whe she visited Choto Angaria in West Midnapore where 11 workers of her party had been killed in political clashes.

    In 2006 and 2007 Banerjee was attacked on several occasions by alleged CPI(M) goons who threw bombs and fired at her car to stop her entry into Nandigram – then a battlefield due to the anti-farm land acquisition movement.

    In 2006 during her protest outside the office of the block development officer at Singur, she was dragged by the police and removed from the spot.

    In 2010 during her tenure as Railway Minister, a car in Banerjee’s convoy was hit by a truck.

    The TMC supremo was returning from a rally at the then Maoist bastion of Lalgarh and had alleged that it was an attempt on her life.

    Such incidents, however, did not occur since TMC came to power in 2011 and Banerjee became the chief minister until Wednesday’s attack at Nandigram.

    The attacks on her had been greeted with derision by her political opponents.

    CPI-M had on several occasions alleged that Banerjee had herself scripted the “dramas” of being attacked to gain sympathy.

    The TMC has claimed that Wednesday’s incident was a “well planned conspiracy” by BJP to “remove” her from the poll campaign.

    “Mamata Banerjee is a fighter. The more you attack her she makes a comeback with more ferocity,” TMC leader Sougata Roy said.

    Banerjee has described herself as a “street fighter” many times in the past.

    “Many people don’t want her to campaign for the elections. They want her to be removed from their path. The BJP should be ashamed that it has stooped so low that its supporters are attacking a woman,” Roy said.

    The BJP has denied the allegation and said Banerjee is only trying to get sympathy votes.

    West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the attack on Banerjee at Nandigram saying that it needs to be seen whether the incident was a “well-scripted drama” to garner votes.

    “The people of the state have seen such a drama earlier too”, he added.

    The Congress too has been critical about the alleged attack on Banerjee at Nandigram.

    Its state party president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had on Wednesday accused her of resorting to “hypocrisy and theatrics” to gain public sympathy ahead of the assembly polls.

    Chowdhury, who is also the Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha, said Banerjee is “feeling the heat” in Nandigram and is thus resorting to “stunts and drama”.

  • ‘Khela Hobe’: Trinamool’s poll jingle goes viral, BJP uses it to hit back at Mamata camp

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: TMC’s popular poll jingle ‘Khela Hobe’ (game is on) seems to have also caught the fancy of rival BJP, as political heavyweights of both the parties draw references to its lyrics, sometimes even building slogans around the song, at their public metings in Bengal.

    Originally written and uploaded on YouTube by TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya in January, the jingle has since undergone many variations, with the party’s Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal first giving it a spin and chanting ‘bhoyonkor khela hobe’ (fierce game will be played) at a rally.

    “The song ‘Khela Hobe’ has been able to establish an instant connect with people. It has received a favourable response from youth across the state,” Bhattacharya said.

    At a recent rally in Kamarhati constituency addressed by Bhattacharya, a thousand-strong crowd lapped up every word of the song delivered in a rap format.

    Former minister and the ruling camp’s candidate from the constituency, Madan Mitra, has recorded his own version of ‘Khela Hobe’, while the party’s Ghatal MLA Shankar Dolai was recently seen dancing wildly to the beats of the song at a roadshow.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also been asking voters at rallies if they were ready for the game to begin (Khela Hobe?), drawing loud cheers from the crowd.

    “Khela Hobe. Ami goalkeeper. Dekhi ke jete,” (the game is on. I will do the goal keeping. Let’s wait and see who wins,” Banerjee said at a meeting.

    The BJP, which had initially criticised the TMC for likening the political battle with a game and “trivialising” the democratic process, co-adopted the slogan later, with defence minister Rajnath Singh, among other saffron camp leaders, bringing ‘khela hobe’ references in their speech, in a bid to take a jibe at Banerjee and her party.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a public meeting here recently, had said ‘khela khatam, vikas shuru’ (game ends, development begins).

    “Election can never be equated with a game. There is an element of threat hidden in the slogan,” BJP spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya said.

    BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, however, does not mind borrowing the slogan from the TMC to give the opponents a befitting reply.

    “Let the game begin. People of the state will vote for the BJP and give a befitting reply to TMC for its misrule. Paribartan (change) will happen very soon,” Ghosh said.

    The jingle penned by Debanshu says, “Baire theke bargi ashe/Niyom kore proti mashe/Amio achi, tumio robe/Bondhu ebar khela hobe! (Looters from outside are visiting the state every month, but we are ready to face them. The game is on).

  • Not to indulge in politics over CM’s injuries, want probe: BJP on visiting Mamata at hospital

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was admitted to a facility here after receiving injuries during her Nandigram visit, the Bengal BJP said the party will not indulge in any politics over her injuries but will demand a comprehensive probe into the incident since she had alleged conspiracy behind it.

    Noting that the fight with the TMC is a political one and on ideological and development issues, BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya wished her a speedy recovery and said, the party hoped for her return to the electoral arena as soon as possible.

    “We will not do any kind of politics over the chief minister’s injuries. We pray for her early recovery and return to the political stage,” he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

    According to information received by the BJP state leadership from local party workers and eyewitnesses, it was an accident, but a high-level inquiry is necessary when the chief minister herself has claimed that it was a conspiracy, he said.

    Soon after the incident at Birulia bazar in Nandigram on Wednesday evening, the TMC supremo had claimed that it was an “attack”.

    Banerjee, who filed her nomination papers for Nandigram assembly constituency before the incident, had alleged that she was attacked by four or five people who pushed her, besides banging on her the door of the vehicle, injuring her left leg, waist, shoulder and neck as she fell on the ground.

    She was rushed back to the city and was admitted to state-run SSKM hospital in south Kolkata, less than a couple of kilometres away from her residence.

    “We demand a comprehensive investigation into the incident since the chief minister has claimed that it is a conspiracy and not a mere accident,” he said.

    The BJP spokesman and party leader Tathagata Roy, a former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya, went to the hospital on Thursday morning to visit the chief minister.

    He said, they chose not to react after TMC supporters raised “go back, BJP hai hai” slogans when they went to the hospital.

    “They may have done it out of temporary excitement, but such behaviour is not welcome inside hospital premises when a political worker goes to meet the chief minister of the state to wish her speedy recovery,” Bhattacharya said.

    He said they were told by the hospital authorities that visitors were not being allowed to meet her since she was undergoing treatment in her cabin.

    “We conveyed our concern to the TMC leaders present, including minister Arup Biswas, and wished the chief minister a speedy recovery,” Bhattacharya said.

    He said, the chief minister avails Z-plus security and there are at least 12 vehicles in her convoy.

    Banerjee had said that there were neither any police personnel nor the Purba Medinipur police superintendent present near her.

    Bhattacharya said, if the chief minister faces such a situation despite having a three-layered security, then there is need for a comprehensive inquiry and fixing of responsibility for any lapse.

    The BJP leader questioned how could anyone reach near a leader of Banerjee’s stature breaking the security cover, when the director and additional director, security, were present.