“Though I am in pain, I had to come out to fight the BJP”: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday addressed two public rallies in Purulia’s Balarampur and Baghmundi. She was on a wheelchair, her foot – in a cast – placed on a stool. This is the first time Banerjee has left Kolkata after being injured in Nandigram on March 10. After her injury in Nandigram, she stepped out of home on Sunday, and led a rally in Kolkata.

Speaking at the rallies, Banerjee said: “I am a street fighter and nothing can stop me. More than my pain, I’m worried about the pain of common people of the state. That’s why, despite the pain in my body, I have not been able to stay back home. I had to come out of home and talk to you about the way BJP is ruling the country”. She added that “earlier, even the Left Front tried to scuttle my voice, but nothing can stop me from standing by the people”.

Banerjee urged people to come out in large numbers and fight the battle with her, and the “need” to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that she said, is responsible for the continuous price rice of essential commodities and fuel. “If I can fight with a broken leg and after being hit on the head, so can you,” she said.

She said that the BJP is “ruling the country through dictatorship” and “all the independent voices across the country are being scuttled.” She mentioned the media and “other independent organisations” that are “losing their independence and significance due to the BJP’s iron hand with which they are scaring these voices”, she said.

She said that Purulia has seen huge development in the last few years and the government had helped in the progress of tribals by speeding up the process of granting certificates to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes, among other things. “There was violence in Purulia and Ayodhya hills. Now peace prevails as the government has taken action,” she added.

She asked women to be on the guard if outsiders intrude into the area. “Women run the family but they are also capable of defending their homes,” she said. Banerjee added, “While we are trying to bring in development and provide free ration, BJP is hiking the price of fuel. If you want to cook the free ration we provide, you do not have kerosene oil or have to procure LPG at Rs 800, which is unbearable.”