Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ended the campaign for Nandigram on a high note on Tuesday, standing up on the dais despite her leg injury during the national anthem. Nandigram -- which has turned into the centrepiece of the state assembly election, with the prestige fight between the Chief Minister and her aide-turned-bitter-enemy Suvendu Adhikari -- goes to polls on Thursday.
Tuesday was the last day of campaign.
Ms Banerjee, who injured her leg the day she filed her nomination for the seat -- had made it a point to campaign across the state on wheelchair. At every rally, she had insisted that her injury was nothing compared to what the country has sustained under the BJP rule.
"I have been injured in the head many times. I have been injured in the hips many times. I have overcome all those injuries. If I give in to my pain and lie down then BJP will cause pain for the people. I feel people's pain is more important than my pain," she has said.
On Tuesday, her gesture doubled up as a master stroke in optics.
Nandigram has been the place that catapulted the 66-year-old to power a decade ago, bringing down the 35-year-old Left citadel in the state. On Tuesday, the area is the backdrop for what is seen as the toughest fight of her career.
For Suvendu Adhikari, Nandigram was the obvious choice.
For the leader who had worked at a grassroot level in the area during its agitation against land acquisition by the Left government -- it was the best way to cock-a-snook at the Chief Minister after walking out of the party and joining her arch-rival BJP.
For Ms Banerjee and her street-fighter credentials, it was a challenge that cannot be left unanswered. The Chief Minister, who had been contesting till then from Bhowanipur, declared that she would go where the battle was.
Over the last weeks, Mr Adhikari has turned her outsider versus insider plank against the BJP on its head, declaring that in Nandigram, Ms Banerjee was the outsider, who has been surviving because of her appeasement politics.
The Chief Minister's response has been to declare him a Mir Jafar, the commander-in-chief of Bengal's last independent Nawab Siraj-ud Daula, who betrayed him to the British.
On Tuesday, Ms Banerjee and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held back-to-back roadshows in the area.
The Chief Minister, who has been camping in Nandigram from Sunday - held an 8-km roadshow, followed by a series of public meetings.
Mr Shah held roadshows in a section of the area. Two other leaders were delegated to take on the Chief Minister in the area - Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and superstar Mithun Chakraborty.
