Bengal: Mamata Banerjee, Amit Shah in Nandigram for last day of campaign

Nandigram/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in West Bengal poll epicentre Nandigram on Tuesday for the last day of campaign ahead of the elections in the constituency on Apr 1.

Mamata, who is herself contesting in Nandigram as a Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate, will be holding roadshows and rallies in the seat.

She will be in Sonachura which houses several families which had lost their near ones in police firing during the 2007 Nandigram land movement.

Meanwhile, "Jai Shree Ram" slogans were raised by some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters in Reapara when Mamata was travelling in her car. Unlike similar instances in the past, no untoward incident took place this time.

The TMC supremo, who is camped in Nandigram since Mar 28, will take on her former lieutenant and now BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari in the electoral contest, which has grabbed the eyeballs of people across the nation.

Taking a dig at Mamata's camping in Nandigram, the BJP has said it will sweep the second phase of elections taking place in 30 seats.

BJP co-incharge of West Bengal, Amit Malviya, tweeted, "There are 30 seats in phase two of Bengal polls but Mamata Banerjee has not been able to get out of Nandigram for the last 3 days! Despite her apparent nervousness and staying put in the constituency, ignoring other seats going to poll, she is losing... BJP will sweep phase two!"

In support of Suvendu, Shah, who is steering the BJP's poll campaign in once-a-Left citadel, will hold a mega roadshow from Bheturia to Reapara.

In a swipe at Shah's roadshow, TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweeted, "Last minute roadshow by Hon’ble HM on the same route taken by Mamataji yesterday in Nandigram.
Will take you a while to play catch up, Sir!"

The Nandigram battle took a new turn after Mamata slammed Suvendu and his parliamentarian father Sisir Adhikari, a former TMC man, for allowing police to enter into Nandigram during the land movement in 2007.

Hitting out at Mamata for her U-turn from earlier stance, Sisir Adhikari said, "Surmising a clean-defeat in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee has lost her mind and that's why she is making such baseless allegations."

The Left, which has always maintained that the police firing was a conspiracy, has hit out at Mamata following her remark.

CPI-M leader and Jadavpur Assembly constituency's candidate Sujan Chakraborty said that Mamata Banerjee's remark had exposed the truth about the Nandigram incident.

"We knew that the truth would reveal itself one day. Bengal is still compensating for misunderstanding you," Chakraborty wrote on his Facebook page addressing the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

In a statement, Bhattacharya, whose government was ousted in 2011, has said the conspirators are now divided into two parties, which he most-likely meant to be the TMC and BJP.