‘Not your party member’: Didi on PM’s 2nd seat dig

Dinhata/Natabari/Falakata (WB), April 2

Asserting that she was winning the election from Nandigram, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying she did not need his “suggestion” on contesting from an alternative seat.

The Prime Minister had on Thursday asked Banerjee to clarify whether there was truth in “rumours” that she would file her nomination for another seat going to the polls in the last phase, maintaining that the TMC chief had admitted defeat in Nandigram.

“I want to tell the Prime Minister to control his Home Minister first and then try to control us. We are not your party members that you will control us,” Banerjee said at an election rally in Dinhata in the north Bengal district of Coochbehar. Banerjee had on Friday alleged that Shah was influencing central forces to behave in a partisan manner during the Bengal polls. “I am not your party’s member that you will suggest I contest from another seat. I have contested from Nandigram and will win from there,” she added.

At a rally in Uluberia on Thursday, Modi said the people of Bengal were prepared if she went anywhere else to contest, anticipating defeat in Nandigram, where she was up against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, her former aide. — PTI

She has lost Bengal battle, says Shah

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had clearly lost the poll battle in West Bengal and said the Citizenship Amendment Act would be on the agenda in the first meeting of the new BJP government which would come to power in the state.
• Shah held two roadshows in the state during the day one at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas and another at Arambagh in Hoogly district. PTI