The Election Commission had arrived at the conclusion that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was in no manner attacked by members of one political party at Nandigram, leading her to sustain a leg injury. Based on the reports of Bengal police and the state government, the EC had said that what transpired at Nandigram was a mere accident. Yet, Mamata Banerjee and her TMC have compulsively become addicted to flashing the victim card as a last resort to somehow gaining the sympathy of the people of West Bengal.
At a rally in Bankura, CM Mamata targeted the BJP, alleging that it was unleashing a plot to kill her. She also accused EC of being biased towards the BJP and covering up its actions. “If the BJP is thinking that they can win by breaking one of my legs, then they don’t know that I can play with just one leg,” she added. The West Bengal chief minister went on to say, that while the doctor has asked her to rest, she is bearing the pain and attending poll rallies because the ‘pain BJP will give people – if it is elected – would be unbearable’.
Despite the state’s chief secretary also saying in his report to the EC that Mamata Banerjee met with an accident, the chief minister is relentlessly going on and on about how she was attacked by the BJP, and how the saffron party aims to finish her off. Mamata Banerjee- the feisty, aggressive, unflinching lone warrior, who toppled a seven-term long Left regime in West Bengal, has today been reduced to a leader who has to survive at the mercy of cameras and a section of friendly media – which visuals of her on a wheelchair. The sole aim of this image projection is to somehow generate a sympathy wave in her favour because that is the only miracle that can save the TMC’s freefalling electoral fortunes at this moment.
In its desperation to flash the victim card and portray Mamata as the only wall standing between the BJP and Bengal, the TMC and its consultancy firm also managed to get the chief minister out of a plaster into a crepe bandage – all within 24 hours. Within 24 hours also, Mamata Banerjee took to changing her testimony. “When I was doing namaskar towards the crowd from the top of the bonnet, suddenly I felt a huge pressure, and my legs were crushed by the car”, the chief minister said. This, in contrast to her earlier claims of being attacked by a mob of 4-5 men.
Read more: Mamata Banerjee’s doctors perform a miracle, create a plaster that heals fractures in 24 hours
TFI had earlier reported that at least two eyewitnesses claimed that Mamata Banerjee was not part of any organised attack. A student Suman Maity told news agency ANI, “A crowd had gathered to see the CM. When she was leaving, she fell down and got injured on her neck and leg. She was not pushed; people were only gathering to see her. The car was moving quite slowly.”
Another eyewitness Chitranjan Das told ANI, “I saw what happened. Mamata Banerjee came back from visiting temples and she was sitting in her car with the door open. There was a hoarding in front of the car which fell down on the door and hit Mamata Banerjee on her neck and knee. She was not hit or pushed.”
On the basis of eyewitness accounts, various state government and observer reports, the Election Commission had found Banerjee to be a victim of an accident. Yet, the TMC has made Mamata Banerjee’s injury a poll plank, because the victim card is the best that the TMC can come up with right now.
