In the latest twist to the ongoing assembly elections in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee was injured in what appeared to be a freak accident. However, going by the incumbent chief minister’s version, it’s anything but an accident, or so she wants to suggest. The incident occurred in Nandigram where she had gone to file her nomination for the elections.
The Trinamool Congress Supremo said four-five persons pushed her against her car and forcibly shut the door behind her in the absence of police presence resulting in severe injury in her leg.
If she suspects the role of any political party in the incident, she did not say it in many words but this is what she suggested when she called it a conspiracy. "Of course it is a conspiracy… there were no policemen around me, she was quoted by the media as saying.
The chief minister showed her injured leg to media persons at Birulia Anchal Market, 5 km from Reyapara and said, "See how it is swelling. The lady was visibly in physical distress while addressing the media.
Validating his leader’s claim, a Trinamool MP, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, said Mamata Banerjee was leaving Birulia Anchal after performing Puja at a temple when a few unidentified persons shoved her into the car and banged the door behind her forcibly resulting in the injuries in her left leg and severe pain in the waist.
After the incident, the 66-year-old leader had to cut short her visit to Nandigram after filing her nomination for the assembly polls. She was immediately rushed to Kolkata and admitted to the SSKM Hospital where she is undergoing treatment.
The BJP, rival contender in the elections, called the incident a political stunt. Incidentally, the party had blamed the Trinamool for the attack on its chief JP Nadda's convoy in the state in December.
Coming as it does just a day after the replacement of the Director General of Bengal Police by the Election Commission the political angle to the incident cannot be brushed aside. Besides, given the soaring political temperature in the election season where rival political parties are trying every trick in the book to outdo one another in a no-holds-barred fight for power, nothing can be impossible. The fact that the chief minister of a state is making such an allegation itself is a blot on democracy.
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The opinion expressed in the article is of the writer. Writer is a freelance journalist/journalist based in Delhi
