CM Holds Mega Rally, Attacks EC, Opposition

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a massive election rally yesterday, on the last day of election campaign before the fifth phase of the Assembly Election. The rally, led by Trinamool Congress-Supremo Banerjee, started from Sukanta Setu in Jadavpur to Gariahat. Another rally was followed by this Maha Michil, from Beltala to Hazra that falls under her Bhowanipore constituency.

Banerjee had her last poll campaign on Thursday at the south Kolkata region that will go on polls on Saturday, April 30. South 24 Parganas and Hooghly will also cast their votes on the same date.  A total of 53 constituencies will go on polls in the fifth phase. TMC’s rally on Thrusday was a reply to chief opposition party CPIM that was conducted in the same area on April 19, as reports said.

Clad in her symbolic white cotton saree with a chappal, Banerjee was heard urging votes from the people of Kasba, Rashbehari, Tollygunge, Jadavpur and Sonarpur. “Don’t pay heed to slander and canards. They (the Opposition) have no work; therefore they are indulging in slander. Our thinking is positive and constructive which is evident from the all-round development that our government has done in Bengal,” she said during the rally.

According to reports, apart from bashing the Opposition parties, Banerjee used the huge rally as a tool to hit the Election Commission too. The CM asserted that EC had ‘taken some strong measures’ in the previous phases to prevent rigging in North 24 Parganas and Howrah and described it as ‘Delhi’s atrocities.’

 A strong note of displeasure in her voice for issuing Section 144 from a day before the fifth phase, Banerjee said: “Since they (Opposition) are scared that they can’t win, they asked them (EC) to impose curfew.” Reports are that the top TMC leaders like Firhad Hakim, Sovan Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee, who was seen taking money in the Narada sting video, were present in the front row of the rally.