E-Paper
Will build a hut for myself in Nandigram: Mamata Banerjee
Banerjee, who would be contesting the coming assembly elections from Nandigram, is scheduled to file her nomination today. She is pitted against protégé-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari of BJP
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is planning to build a hut for herself at Nandigram in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district, the Trinamool Congress chief said on Tuesday.
Banerjee, who would be contesting the coming assembly elections from Nandigram, is scheduled to file her nomination today.
“I have taken a house on rent in Nandigram for one year. I would come every three months. It is just a two-room house at Reyapara in Nandigram block-II. I have decided that later, I would build a hut here (in Nandigram),” Banerjee said in her first address to party workers in her constituency since announcing her candidature from here, adding that she always sticks to her word.
Even after coming to power, Banerjee has continued to live in her nondescript single-storey house in a dingy lane close to the Kalighat temple in south Kolkata. “I am a village girl. I have a love for villages. I was brought up in the city and the city provided everything. But do you know why I always return to the villages? It is because my childhood, which is now lost, was spent in the village. Every time I went to the village, I used to plant saplings of paddy and mustard and walk amid croplands and sugarcane fields. I was always attracted to villages,” she said.
The TMC chief would be filing her nomination papers today. “She would be filing her nomination from SDO office in Haldia,” said a TMC leader from East Midnapore district. Nandigram is all decked up for the day with wall graffiti, posters, banners and hoardings of Mamata Banerjee.
Meanwhile, Banerjee’s protégé-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari, whom the BJP has pitted against her, is scheduled to inaugurate the BJP’s election office at Nandigram. He is expected to file his nomination on March 12. At least two Union ministers are likely to be present on that day.
Also Read | Bengal assembly elections: ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan has state hooked
Nandigram, located around 100 km south of Kolkata, is one of most prestigious assembly constituencies for the TMC because mass movements against land acquisition during 2006-08 here paved the way for Banerjee’s political resurrection and propelled her to power in 2011.
With Adhikari, a BJP heavyweight pitted against the chief minister from Nandigram, West Bengal is likely to see one of the most high-pitched poll battles in recent times. Nandigram goes into polls on April 1.
The eight-phase elections for 294 seats of the West Bengal assembly are scheduled to be held between March 27 and April 29. Counting of votes will be held on May 2.
