Kolkata:
A TMC delegation met the Election Commision on Friday and claimed that attack on party supremo Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram was a ”conspiracy”, while the rival BJP demanded that the video footage of the alleged incident be made public.
Amid raging war of words between the rivals over Wednesday incident, Banerjee was discharged from the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata this evening after doctors found her recovery to be ”satisfactory”.
Doctors released the 66-year-old TMC supremo following her repeated requests to discharge her from the medical establishment.
Banerjee, seated on a wheelchair with her left foot plastered, greeted party workers gathered outside the Woodburn Block of the hospital.
She left the hospital in her vehicle for her Kalighat residence in the eastern metropolis.
The two contenders to power-BJP and TMC- are locked in fierce recrimination ever since the alleged attack on Banerjee happened on Wednesday when she had gone to file her nomination for the seat, where she is locked in a tense face-off with Suvendu Adhikari, a former loyalist-turned-adversary.
In the national capital, a six-member Trinamool Congress delegation met the full EC team, including Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, for over an hour and submitted a memorandum, claiming BJP leaders in West Bengal had threatened the chief minister through tweets and other remarks.
”Injuries to Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram were not a result of an unfortunate incident but that of a conspiracy. The events leading up to the attempt on her life leave no doubt that the attack was part of a deep-rooted conspiracy,” TMC MP Saugata Roy told reporters after meeting the EC in Delhi.
In the memorandum, the TMC has made allegations against Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Nandigram in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
”When an attempt was made on the life of Ms Banerjee, in which she was grievously hurt, to cover up the attack, eye- witnesses were planted, illustratively, eye-witnesses Chittaranjan Das and Debabrata Das, who testified that Ms Banerjee’s car was hit against an iron pillar, are associates of Suvendu Adhikari, BJP candidate from Nandigram,” the memorandum says.
The party said the BJP’s Bengal president Dilip Ghosh had uploaded a caricature depicting that she would be hit at Nandigram.
Around the same time, numerous complaints were filed by the saffron party with the EC seeking immediate removal of the then police chief and IGP of West Bengal, it said.
”There is a clear nexus between the post by Dilip Ghosh on Facebook, multiple complaints seeking removal of DGP, the unilateral decision of the ECI to remove the erstwhile (police chief), the plan revealed by Saumitra Khan on Twitter, BJP’s request to suspend/remove security personnel of Ms Banerjee, the resultant attempt on the life of Ms Banerjee and the cover-up of the same by Adhikari,” the memorandum said.
The TMC delegation also handed over documents containing translated tweets of BJP leaders as well as photographs of Banerjee’s car.
”The chairperson’s car does not show even a scratch — clearly demolishing the lie that the vehicle hit an iron pillar on the road.
”In this context, we would also like to mention the unfortunate comment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ‘Brigade Cholo Rally’ on March 7 in which he had said If the scooty has decided to topple in Nandigram, what can we do?” the memorandum stated.
Hours after the TMC delegation visited EC, a BJP team comprising Union Minister Piyush Goyal and party general secretary Bhupender Yadav met poll panel officials and demanded an independent inquiry into Nandigram incident resulting into injury to the TMC president.
The BJP delegation demanded a high-level probe into the alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister in Nandigram.
Besides Goyal and Yadav, party leaders Sambit Patra, Anirban Ganguly and Swapan Dasgupta were also in the BJP delegation.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Yadav said the BJP has demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in West Bengal’s Nandigram on March 10 when Banerjee got injured.
Yadav, a general secretary of the BJP, said, ”The party also requested the election commission to make public the video of Banerjee’s rally in which she got injured.” The BJP leader said once a candidate files nomination, the poll panel maintains a visual record of his public engagements.
The saffron party also demanded that special observers be appointed for the Nandigram Assembly seat from where Banerjee is contesting against her protege-turned-adversary the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.
Voting on the high-profile seat will take place on April 1.
On Banerjee’s discharge from the SSKM hospital a doctor said ”Her condition has improved a lot and she repeatedly insisted to be discharged from the hospital. She will be able to move with restrictions but she needs to come back for another round of check-up within a week.” The TMC held silent protest rallies across West Bengal during the day in protest against alleged attack on their boss at Nandigram.
