Hotspot Nandigram poll din ends with massive roadshows

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Nandigram, March 30

If it was some other day, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee would have perhaps stopped her convoy and given a chase to BJP supporters who dared to raise party slogan “Jai Sri Ram” at her.

But on Tuesday, Mamata ignored BJP supporters first at Reyapara and then at Mohammad Bazaar in Nandigram when they raised the slogan seeing her convoy.

Tuesday, being the last day of campaigning in Nandigram, Mamata was hard-pressed for time as she had a number of programmes, including a roadshow and several meetings, lined up for the day. The BJP, Mamata’s chief rival in the constituency, also left no stone unturned to make the last day of campaigning count.

The BJP campaign in Nandigram on Tuesday, where party candidate Suvendu Adhikari has thrown a tough challenge to TMC supremo Mamata, started with an elaborate roadshow by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and ended with a roadshow by actor Mithun Chakraborty.

Standing atop a caparisoned truck with Adhikari by his side, Shah waved and occasionally tossed flower petals to the crowd who thronged to see the roadshow which stared from Reyapara Boropul and went to Shiva Temple.

Later, Shah told mediapersons that the overwhelming response to the roadshow had convinced him Adhikari’s victory from Nandigram.

In contrast, Banerjee’s roadshow — from Bhangabera Shahid Bedi to Sonachura in Nandigram — was a simple affair. Instead of riding a vehicle, she choose to take part in the roadshow in the wheelchair.

The TMC supremo later addressed public meetings at Sonachura, Bansuli Chawk Lock Gate (Bhekutia) and Tengua More Crossing — all falling in the Nandigram constituency.

Stating that a woman had been raped within five km of where Mamata was staying in Nandigram, Shah alleged that the government headed by Mamata had failed to provide security to women. In response, Mamata cited the Hathras incident and said Shah should first worry about the women living in BJP-ruled UP.

At a meeting in Tengua More, Mamata admitted that she had called up BJP leader Pralay Paul and had asked him for help. “I was told that some local BJP leaders wanted to talk to me. That is why I had called him. I don’t think I did anything wrong,” she said.

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