WEST BENGAL: Between the binary of a
ladaku neta (the war-like Mamata Banerjee) and the PM’s fort-destroyer act, complete with taunts and slogans, there’s another figure who’s also in the contest quite strangely, in his absence. He is Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The 77-year-old former West Bengal CM’s failing health especially respiratory trouble in this Covid season has kept him away from the public stage. All that has come from him by way of intervention in this election season is a statement. He shot a single arrow, talking of “the unravelling of the Singur-Nandigram conspiracy”, and the irony of “the conspirators now fighting each other” in the silence of the graveyard.
Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked people to ensure that the Trinamul Congress got handsome majority as she apprehended that the BJP would employ poaching tactics if her party won the Assembly polls by a slender margin.
“I can only form the government if our candidates like Becharam Manna, Ashima Patra and Dilip Yadav win the election. We can’t form a government if I win alone. We are contesting 291 seats and our friends in the (Darjeeling) hills are contesting the remaining three seats. I have to win at least 225-230 seats and I can’t form a government if I don’t win those,” said Mamata at rally in Singur on Wednesday.