New Delhi:
Mamata Banerjee flew back to Kolkata in a private plane this afternoon after declaring, "Delhi is not safe; I am sorry....I was badly manhandled but I cannot speak about it openly." (
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The West Bengal chief minister was heckled last evening by student activists affiliated to the Left as she arrived at the offices of the Planning Commission in Delhi. Her Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, was manhandled and is in hospital. She too has been admitted to a hospital in Kolkata today.
The violent protests have triggered revenge attacks from Ms Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress, which vandalised Left party offices in different parts of Bengal. Both groups also clashed this evening at the Presidency College in Kolkata. Ms Banerjee refused to accept her party's involvement.
"My party workers are passionate, but they listen to me. They will not indulge in violence when I have told them not to," she insisted.
Ms Banerjee, who cancelled a meeting with the Prime Minister after the protests, said she was unwell and opted out of today's appointment with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
West Bengal's Governor MK Narayanan has strongly condemned what he called "the shocking premeditated assault on the chief minister, the finance minister and other ministers of west Bengal." (
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Trinamool leaders have been urging cadres to remain peaceful today as they hold rallies against the Left. The CPI(M) has agreed that its students behaved reprehensively yesterday, but asked the Trinamool to stop targeting its offices and cadres today.
The activists, who targeted Ms Banerjee last evening, were protesting against last weeks' death of a Left activist, Sudipto Gupta, in police custody. Ms Banerjee has described his death as an accident and "a small and petty matter." (
Watch)