Shah asks Mamata if she felt pain for slain BJP workers

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday kicked off TMC’s campaign in Purulia district where polling will take place in the first phase on March 27. Mamata addressed rallies at two different locations, but made no mention of the political violence that rocked the district after panchayat elections in 2018.

At Balarampur, where two BJP workers were found dead after the rural poll results were announced, Mamata asked the crowd to forgive TMC workers if they hurt them in any way. “We will correct the mistakes,” the CM said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was campaigning in neighbouring Bankura district, however, raked up the issue. Speaking at Ranibandh, where a BJP worker was killed ahead of the elections, Shah asked if Mamata felt any pain for the BJP workers who lost their lives in the violence. “They (the slain BJP workers) were also somebody’s son or brother or father or husband,” Shah said. Mamata, who has been moving around in a wheelchair said: “Some people thought that the injury would confine me to bed. But they don’t know me.”

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