Mamata Banerjee has always been a destiny’s child. Who else could have come from an extremely humble background to take on the might of the Left, finally ending its juggernaut? Some though ascribe it to her kopal (luck). Luck or destiny whatever the case may be has again bailed out didi. Thursday evening Mamata narrowly escaped in what could have been a life threatening accident from a short circuit in AC machine. TMC leaders though refuse to believe that it was an accident and are busy floating conspiracy theories.
What exactly happened?
Yesterday Bengal CM was in Maldah district. After rallies in support of singer Shoumitro Roy she went back to a hotel. Transport Minister Madan Mitra, famous actor Mithun Chakraborty and other members of didi’s entourage were also staying in the same hotel. After having a brief meeting with party colleagues didi returned to her room. She was taking a bath when suddenly everything went dark. Smoke and foul smell completely enveloped the room. Didi hurriedly rushed out crying for help. Thankfully one of didi’s closest aides was there nearby. He rescued the Chief Minister and got her out of the harm’s way.
TMC’s reaction
Trinamool Congress which is currently involved in a war of words with Election Commission expectedly didn’t spare the chance to attack them. Madan Mitra said that this was a sinister political conspiracy to kill Mamata Banerjee. According to Madan Mitra, didi was saved only due to grace of God. Party spokesperson Derek soon tweeted blaming Election Commission for this mishap. General Secretary Mukul Roy hurriedly shot of a letter to Chief Election Commissioner. He said that currently the entire state machinery is working under EC’s dictate. EC has failed to provide adequate security to Mamata Banerjee who is entitled to Z category protection. The letter too invokes the possibility of a pre-planned conspiracy.
Primary investigation though reveals that there was some technical faults with the AC machine that lead to short circuit. Probably the line tripped due to overload as suggested by officers of electricity department. Election Commission has maintained a cautious stance in this matter. They acknowledged getting the complaints and said that they are looking into it.
Reaction of opposition
In a rare sign of solidarity virtually every party expressed concern over this matter. Leader of opposition in Assembly Suryakanta Mishra called on Partha Chatterjee to enquire about Mamata’s health. Nobody really attacked didi for her accusation that the incident was a political conspiracy. Congress too expressed solidarity though they laughed off the shorojantro (conspiracy) theory.
Bickering takes backseat
The norm after any polling day is political parties trading charges against each other, about how poll process was disrupted. But the suddenness of this accident probably blunted the rhetoric of each party. In Bengal polling was nearly 82 % in the 4 constituencies. No major complaints were lodged apart from that by Forward Block in Cooch Behar. EC though found very little ground evidence of malpractices. Over all elections took place peacefully. Even the opposition party grudgingly acknowledged it. The only notable thing was sizeable presence of TMC workers in Darjeeling. Normally the hills are known as fiefdom of Bimal Gurung where his will holds to a large extent. The fact that TMC is putting up a good fight there seems to be indicative of a changing dynamics. The polling day ended tepidly but a humbling thought lingers on. Even the most powerful are mere mortals finally not immune to unpredictability of life.
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