West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee suffers head injury during fall at home; discharged after treatment
Director of the state-run SSKM hospital said Banerjee was brought with a "history of fall within the vicinity of her home due to some push from behind".
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) founder Mamata Banerjee suffered a bleeding injury on her forehead on Thursday evening when she fell inside a room at her residence at Kalighat in south Kolkata, her brother Kartick Banerjee told the media.
Her family members rushed the chief minister to the state-run SSKM Hospital located around three kilometres away.
Although the hospital authorities formed an eight-member medical board, Banerjee was discharged and allowed to go home after preliminary treatment as tests confirmed that her condition was stable.
A few hundred TMC workers, who were campaigning on the streets for the coming Lok Sabha polls, rushed to the hospital. Although Banerjee was initially admitted to a cabin, the doctors allowed her to leave around 9.30 pm.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a doctor at the hospital said: “The injury was on her forehead. We had to stitch it up to stop the bleeding. Some tests were done to ascertain the effect of the injury. More tests are necessary to find out whether the chief minister slipped and fell or whether she fainted because of a sudden fluctuation in blood pressure.”
The incident happened shortly after Banerjee returned home after attending an event held at Gariahat in south Kolkata in memory of veteran Congress and TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee.
TMC leader Rajib Banerjee said the chief minister's nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was at home when the incident happened.
"Abhishek Banerjee took the chief minister to hospital," Rajib said.
Photos of the chief minister, with blood oozing from her forehead, went viral on social media. These were circulated by the TMC’s social media team minutes after the accident. Leaders from all parties, including BJP, wished her a speedy recovery.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too wished Banerjee a fast recovery in a post on X.
This was the second injury the chief minister suffered on the eve of an election.
In March 2021, Banerjee was injured in an accident in East Midnapore when she was campaigning at the Nadigram assembly seat that she contested. She carried out the rest of the campaign for herself and other TMC candidates from a wheelchair. Banerjee however lost the Nandigram election to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari. She had to contest a bypoll in Kolkata to continue as chief minister.
The Nandigram accident triggered a debate when Banerjee alleged that it was a planned attack. The Election Commission of India had then sought a report on Banerjee’s security arrangements while police started an investigation. TMC and the BJP aimed salvos at each other days before the eight-phase elections in which TMC secured 215 seats while the saffron camp got 75.
Although TMC leaders and the chief minister's brother, Kartick Banerjee, told the media that she fell inside her home, speculations on a conspiracy surface late on Thursday night when Dr Manimoy Bandopadhyay, director, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, SSKM Hospital, read out a medical bulletin which said the incident happened "in the vicinity" of the chief minister's home and she fell "due to some push from behind".
"Chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee reported to our hospital today around 7.30 pm with a history of falls within the vicinity of her home due to some push from behind. She had a cerebral concussion and a sharp cut over her forehead which was bleeding profusely....."
Kajari Banerjee, a TMC councillor and Kartick Banerjee's wife said, “We don't know exactly what happened but he heard that someone pushed from behind.”
No police officer has yet commented on the issue.