"My Good Luck That I Survived": Mamata Banerjee, In Wheelchair, At Rally

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who hit the campaign trail yesterday in a wheelchair, made the 300-odd km journey to Purulia today, where she declared, "People's pain is greater than my pain". Referring to her injury, sustained last week in Nandigram, she said, "Some thought I wouldn't be able to step out with this broken leg".  

At her rally in Kolkata yesterday, Ms Banerjee had made the same point.

 "My pain is not greater than the suffering of people as democracy is being trampled through dictatorship," she had said. "I will continue to roam around Bengal on this wheelchair. If I go on bed rest, who will reach out to the people of Bengal?" the Chief Minister had said.

"I was injured in an incident and it's my good luck that I survived. I have a plaster and I cannot walk," she said today.  

The Chief Minister – who earlier said she was attacked by unknown persons in Nandigram -- launched a vitriolic attack on the BJP today.  

"The BJP won here because of lies. They are selling off everything," she told the crowd in the area, where the BJP had won massively in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.  

The BJP's Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato had wrested the seat from Trinamool Congress's  Dr Mriganko Mahato by a huge margin. The party, which won 18 of the state's 42 seats, considers Purulia part of its turf, second only to Darjeeling in North Bengal.   

Purulia, along with Bankura and Midnapur, had been part of Jangalmahal – the state's Naxal belt – where Ms Banerjee's government along with the UPA at the Centre, had launched massive flushing operations.  

Holding the BJP-led Centre responsible for the fuel price hike, Ms Banerjee said, "We are engaged in development and BJP is increasing prices of fuel and gas, there is no kerosene also".

"Our government has announced widow pension of Rs 1000. We have distributed caste certificates under Duarey Sarkar. We have built Raghunath Murmu campus," she added, in a tacit reminder of Union minister Amit Shah's promise to build a university named after the Santali writer and educator, known best for his invention of the Ol Chiki script.