The campaigning for the second phase of West Bengal election concluded on Tuesday night. On this occasion, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee played one final card; telling voters that she belonged to the ‘Shandilya gotra’ – one of the eight highest Brahmin ‘gotras’.
At a rally in Nandigram which will see a high-stakes personal prestige battle between Ms. Banerjee and her protégé-aide-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari, the Chief Minister led off by reminiscing about visits to temples, where priests asked her for her ‘gotra’ or lineage.
Remembering her trip to a temple Ms. Banerjee said, “During my second campaign, I visited a temple where the priest enquired about my ‘gotra’. I told him ‘Maa Maati Manush‘ (the slogan that powered her to victory in 2011).”
She added, “That reminded me of my visit to Tripura’s Tripureshwari temple where too the priest had asked my ‘gotra’ and I told him ‘Maa Mati Manush’,” further adding, “Actually I am ‘Shandilya’.”
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Nandigram, the constituency that had helped Ms. Banerjee storm the state’s Left citadel and dislodge Left from its 34-yr-old rule and catapulted her to power a decade ago, is today the stage of her toughest political battle. On Monday, March 29, CM Banerjee held a roadshow in a wheelchair from Khudiram More to Thakur Chawk in Nandigram.
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During the rally, the TMC supremo stood up with her fractured leg for the national anthem. TMC leaders Subrata Bakshi and Dola Sen helped Mamata to stand up from the wheelchair. The CM suffered an injury in her foot on the day she had filed her nomination for Nandigram.
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The second phase of West Bengal polls on April 1 will see voting in 30 assembly constituencies. These 30 seats are spread across Bankura, West and East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas. As per the schedule released by Election Commission of India, the eight-phase polling will conclude on April 29 while the vote counting will take place on May 2.
