A day before filing her nomination papers, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on March 9 held a big road show at Nandigram in Purbi Midnapore.
Cautioning the people to beware of the attempts to polarise votes on communal lines she thundered that she herself is a Hindu. But she does not use the religious card for the sake of politics. Hinduism teaches love to everybody.
She recited Chandi Path at the massive rally in Nandigram.
The Trinamool Congress supremo strongly refuted the campaign launched by the supporters of Suvendhu Adhikari that she is an outsider while the latter is a local. “If I am an outsider how did I become the chief minister of West Bengal?”, she asked.
While Mamata would be filing her papers a day before Mahashivratri on March 10, her former lieutenant-turned-arch rival Suvendhu would be doing the same on March 12.
Nandigram will be going to poll in the second phase, that is on April 1.
Mamata had in her visit to Nandigram on January 18 publicly announced that she would be contesting from this constituency. Today’s huge display of street power in this small place clearly exhibited her capability to pull crowd. This was the third day in a row that she had undertaken such an exercise. On March 7 and 8 she undertook two big Padyatras (Foot marches) in Siliguri and Kolkata in protest against the spiralling rise in fuel price.
Political analysts are of the view that Mamata consciously tried to dispel the image created by her political rival that she indulges in Muslim appeasement. She offered prayer and quoted from Hindu scriptures to send the message that she is a Hindu. She did so in the constituency having one-third Muslim population.
