As mercury touched nearly 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday afternoon, Mamata Banerjee started her final leg of campaign in south Kolkata, which is going to the polls on Saturday.
At one of the busiest traffic intersections near a flyover named after poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, uncle of former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Ms. Banerjee said the coalition of “CPI(M)-Congress-BJP-ABP-Delhi” cannot defeat the Trinamool Congress. ABP is Ananda Bazar Patrika , the leading media group in eastern India. Ms. Banerjee says a “larger conspiracy” is being hatched against her by the group and the Opposition in the State and at the Centre.
“A massive smear campaign has been launched against me and my party by the CPI(M)-Congress-BJP-ABP-Delhi. But I assure you that even the well-known leaders of the alliance, who have come together, will not be able to win … forget the unknown candidates,” she said as campaigning for the fifth phase draws to a close. Fifty-three seats in South 24 Parganas, Kolkata and Hooghly districts will go to the polls on Saturday.
“Can you believe this that Section 144 against assembly is imposed on the election day. People go out together to celebrate democracy and they are raising a road block,” she asked the crowd.
“I have confidence in the people and they have seen that we are not lazy,” she said while making a personal appeal to vote for the Trinamool.
But despite Ms. Banerjee’s appeal, Trinamool leaders and cadres are apprehensive, considering that the gap between the CPI(M) and the Congress is narrowing — unthinkable when the alliance was formed. Standing a little distance from Ms. Banerjee’s stage, a Trinamool supporter said he was worried.
“I think there were more people in Buddhadeb babu ’s rally in the same area on April 19,” he concluded. Biswanath Chakravarty, psephologist and head of the Political Science Department in Rabindra Bharati University here, did not deny that a “six-phase, seven day” election is offsetting Trinamool’s chances.
“When elections are spread over a long period, the momentum picks up slowly. In this year’s poll, the momentum is in favour of the Left-Congress alliance,” Professor Chakravarty said.
Ms. Banerjee refrained from predicting results during the roadshow, unlike in her previous rallies. Rather she said the Opposition, engaged in “fortune telling,” would be defeated.
