"BJP, Brace Yourselves": Blame Game After Mamata Banerjee's Attack Charge

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen in hospital with her left leg in a cast in a photo tweeted by her nephew Abhishek Banerjee this morning, a day after she alleged an attack in Nandigram, where she filed her nomination for the state election later this month.

Abhishek Banerjee, a Trinamool Congress MP, shared the image with a message targeting the BJP, which has mounted an aggressive campaign to try and oust the two-time Chief Minister from power in Bengal. "BJP brace yourselves to see the power of people of BENGAL on Sunday, May 2nd. Get ready," he tweeted.

Mamata Banerjee, 66, said last evening she was pushed by four or five people against her car and had the door shut on her at a time when there were no police personnel around her.

Looking pale and pointing to her leg, she said, "See how it is swelling up". Asked if it was a planned attack, she said, "Of course it is a conspiracy... there were no policemen around me". She appeared to be in pain while speaking. She had plans to stay the night in Nandigram after filing her election papers but was taken to a hospital in Kolkata, 130 km away, after the incident.

According to doctors at the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, there were injuries to her foot, shoulder and neck and she had been given painkillers.

"Initial examination suggests severe bone injuries in her left ankle, foot and bruises, injuries in right shoulder, forearm and neck. The Chief Minister complained of chest pain, breathlessness since the incident. She is kept under close watch for 48 hours," Dr Manimoy Bandopadhya, the director of SSKM Hospital, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Chief Minister was taken through a battery of tests including neurological tests and an X-ray of her left leg. Late in the night, she was sent to the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences at SSKM for an MRI.
Her allegations have exacerbated ugly political sparring seen throughout the Bengal campaign, with the BJP raising questions.

The BJP, which had blamed the Trinamool after its chief JP Nadda's convoy came under attack in Bengal in December, called the incident a stunt by Bengal's ruling party. "Not one eye witness seems to corroborate Mamata Banerjee's 'attack' version. People of Nandigram are upset and angry at her for blaming them and bringing disrepute," tweeted Bengal BJP.

"Is it Taliban that her convoy was attacked? Huge police force accompanies her. Who can get near her?" said state BJP vice-president Arjun Singh, adding, "She did drama for sympathy."

At the spot where Mamata Banerjee was hurt, a broken pole was the focus of investigations into what went down on Wednesday evening at the crowded market where the Chief Minister had been greeting supporters. Some suggest her car hit the pole, while her party maintains the Chief Minister, who has Z-plus security, was surrounded and pushed, which led to her injuries.

The Election Commission has asked the Bengal administration for a report by Friday.

Nandigram is the epicenter of the Mamata Banerjee versus BJP fight that is the theme of the Bengal election starting March 27.

The Chief Minister has been challenged in Nandigram by her former aide-turned-BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari.

Mr Adhikari won the Nandigram seat in 2016 as a Trinamool candidate and his supporters have pitched Mamata Banerjee as an "outsider". Fighting that label, the Chief Minister has been campaigning in the area that catapulted her party to power in 2011 following an agitation against farmland acquisition.  

Elections in Bengal will be held in a record eight rounds over 33 days. The results will be declared on May 2.

The incident came a day after the Election Commission replaced the Director General of Bengal Police, Mr Virender, amid allegations of violence voiced by the BJP. An IPS officer of the 1987 batch, P Nirajnayan, has been named the new police chief.