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‘Make fool of BJP on April Fool’s day, we’d play Holi on May 2’: Mamata Banerjee
With just four days to go before West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee takes on BJPs heavyweight candidate Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in East Midnapore, the TMC supremo urged voters to make a fool of the BJP on April 1, also known as April Fool’s Day, and said that she would play Holi on May 2 when the results are declared
With just four days to go before West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee takes on BJPs heavyweight candidate Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in East Midnapore, the TMC supremo urged voters to make a fool of the BJP on April 1, also known as April Fool’s Day, and said that she would play Holi on May 2 when the results are declared.
“April 1 is April Fool’s Day. Make a fool of them on April 1 and we would play Holi on May 2 with many colours like green and red,” said Banerjee while addressing a program on Dol Yatra in Nandigram.
This was Banerjee’s first rally in Nandigram after she filed her nomination on March 10. The TMC supremo had to be rushed back to Kolkata after she sustained injuries on March 10.
The chief minister and top TMC leaders had earlier alleged that it was a deliberate attack and a conspiracy to kill her. The BJP had then said that Banerjee had insulted the people of Nandigram.
“Four to five people pushed me. People of Nandigram have no fault. I am not blaming anyone. I am grateful to the person who helped me with a pack of ice after I was injured,” she added.
As the BJP has mounted an attack on Mamata trying to project her as an outsider in Nandigram, she tried to focus on her ‘bhoomikanya’ image.
Also read: To Amit Shah’s BJP win in Phase 1 claim, Mamata hurls outsider barb
“I would like to tell those who are underestimating me and tagging me as an outsider that I am bhoomikanya (daughter of the soil). I am your daughter now. This is my constituency and I am here to stay here for the next four to five days. I will leave only after the elections are held on April 1 and then come back later,” she added.
The TMC supremo also said that she could have won by 50,000 votes had she contested from Bhabanipur, her traditional seat and home turf.
“Do you think that I didn’t have a seat to contest? I would have won by a margin of 50,000 votes had I contested from Bhabanipur. I am the daughter of Bengal and could have contested from any seat and won. But I came to Nandigram to salute the soil,” she said.
The chief minister mounted a veiled attack on her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari, who has vowed to defeat her by 50,000 votes, and his father Sisir Adhikari, who was recently seen at a rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite being a TMP MP.
“I later came to know that police could not have entered Nandigram (in 2007) without the permission of the father and the son. I challenge this. Even I run a government and had gathered information later,” she said while referring to the police firing in Nandigram in 2007 in which 14 persons lost their lives.
“Everyone knows what happened in Nandigram. People of Nandigram would give their response on April 1. Where was she when the Nandigram incident took place? It was I who brought her to Nandigram. Mamata Banerjee would have come to power had there been no Nandigram or Singur. If she has the guts and she comes from a decent family she should come in front of me and tell me on my face and I would reply,” Sisir Adhikari said.
“No matter what drama she plays with a broken leg or a broken hand, I will defeat the Begum,” Suvendu Adhikari said while addressing a rally at Sagar island in South 24 Parganas.
Banerjee also took on Union home minister Amit Shah who had told the media in Delhi that in the first phase, the BJP would win more than 26 out of 30 seats in Bengal.
“I believe that after winning 26 seats in the first phase in Bengal, it will be very easy for us to win over 200 seats overall. The party workers and I have full faith in this,” Shah said in Delhi.
“How can the Union home minister say that they would win 26 seats? Did he enter the EVMs or have rigged the machines? When the machines are opened (on counting day) you will see that there would be a game and everything would become zero. There would be only grass and flower (symbol of TMC),” she added.
Earlier in the day, TMC MP Derek O’Brien had said that Shah was making such statements to boost the morale of the BJP workers. “Shah is a dhopbaaj (liar),” he added.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, the TMC sent a letter to the ECI alleging that the poll panel’s order of relaxing the rules for the appointment of polling agents was “arbitrary, motivated and biased”. The TMC urged the poll panel to withdraw the order.
This comes a day after the TMC had released an audio clip in which the BJP’s vice president Mukul Roy could be purportedly heard telling another party leader Sisir Bajoria that they must approach the commission to get the rule relaxed.
On Saturday, Bajoria had said that it is no secret as the BJP had given an official letter to the ECI.
