Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in an election meeting in West Bengal on April 1, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said that there is absolutely no question of the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee contesting from any other seat.
Modi had hinted at an election rally in Uluberia that Mamata may contest election from another seat as she had got an idea that her defeat in Nandigram is confirmed. The Prime Minister even tested Didi to clear the air, which according to him, is filled with rumours that she is planning to file nominations from another safe seat.
The TMC, on its part, claimed that not only Mamata is going to win by a thumping margin, but the party is going to return to power for the third time in a row. Mamata herself said that notwithstanding large-scale irregularities committed by the BJP workers, 90 per cent of the electorate of Nandigram voted for her.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra, while rubbishing all talks about Mamata filing nominations from another safe seat, taunted that the next seat would be Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Modi.
She was referring to Modi’s decision in 2014 to fight election from both Baroda in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. After winning election from both the seats Modi later vacated Baroda seat. He still represents Varanasi in Lok Sabha.
West Bengal watchers are of the view that Modi’s speech was a part of psychological war to create uncertainty in the TMC rank and file. The TMC was quick to react as any silence on the issue might have been interpreted in a different way. Even if Mamata is not very sure of winning election against her rival Suvendhu Adhikari, she is not going to file nomination from anywhere else.
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