Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee has earned for herself the image of the gutsy political leader. She has portrayed herself as one who has weathered physical attacks and injuries in her four-decade- long political career. Her comebacks after such incidents saw her attacking her opposition with greater ferocity. It has helped Mamata Banerjee achieve a larger than life image among her supporters and fans.
The TMC supremo’s image as a fearless fighter, endowed with nerves of steel and political acumen took shape after one such deadly attack when she was hit on the head by a CPI-M youth leader in 1990. Banerjee had to stay in hospital for over a month. However, after that she came back strongly and it made her a very popular figure.
Again in July 1993 Banerjee, then a Youth Congress member, was beaten up by the police when she led a rally to Writers’ Buildings. She was then leading a demand for voter photo identity cards.
The rallyists had clashed with the police prompting the force to fire killing 14 Youth Congress activists. Banerjee was beaten up and then too she was under treatment in the hospital for a few weeks.
The Bengal chief minister is presently facing one of the toughest political battles of her career. Banerjee is in hospital yet again with her leg in a cast and complaints of chest pain. This happened after she was injured in an alleged attack Wednesday night at Nandigram. The alleged attack came hours after she filed her nomination for the seat. Banerjee has said that she was attacked by four to five men on that day.
The battle is crucial this time for Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The BJP has emerged as the main opposition. It has thrown down the gauntlet and aims to stop her from returning to power for the third straight time.
Nandigram is where she will take on her former protege and now BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. The place had played a significant role in her career as the historic anti-farmland acquisition movement led by her party there in 2007. It was through this movement she emerged as a giant slayer in 2011. The CPI-M-led Left Front had to bite the dust that year in West Bengal after helming the state for 34 long years.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader’s political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career.
Also read: EC responsible for attack on Mamata Banerjee, they failed to give her security: TMC
Banerjee, then Youth Congress leader, first came into the limelight after defeating CPI(M) stalwart and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee from Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency in 1984. She was riding the sympathy wave following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. She, however, lost the 1989 Parliamentary polls.
The attack on her August 16, 1990 by DYFI leader Lalu Alam who hit her on the head with a stick took place at Hazra crossing in the city. It is the scene of many of her agitations, near her Kalighat residence.
The attack had fractured her skull. The incident had made her a household name in the state and one of the tallest mass leaders. She was being spoken in the same breath with the likes of ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Somen Mitra. Banerjee was in her 30s then.
Three years later in January 1993, Banerjee, then president of the state Youth Congress, had stormed into Writers’ Buildings with a hearing-and speech-impaired girl heavily pregnant after being raped by a CPI(M) man. She led a three-hour-long dharna in front of the chambers of the then chief minister Jyoti Basu. She alleged that the rapist had not been arrested because of his political affiliations.
Banerjee sat with the victim on the floor virtually laying a siege on the chief minister’s office. She demanded immediate arrest of the rapist and an audience from Basu.
After the police failed to persuade her, a huge contingent of the force reached Writers’ Buildings. They dragged her by the hair, put her in a prison van and whisked her to the nearby Lalbazar central police lock up.
In 2000-01, just two years after she broke away from the Congress and formed Trinamool Congress, her vehicle was repeatedly attacked at Keshpur and Chamakaitala in West Midnapore district. Several TMC workers were killed during the bloody turf war between the party and CPI(M).
Crude bombs were hurled at her car in 2001 when she visited Choto Angaria in West Midnapore. It was at this place 11 workers of her party had been killed in political clashes.
In 2006 and 2007 Banerjee was attacked on several occasions by alleged CPI(M) goons who threw bombs and fired at her car. Their target was to stop her entry into Nandigram – then a battlefield due to the anti-farm land acquisition movement.
In 2006 during her protest outside the office of the block development officer at Singur, she was dragged by the police and removed from the spot.
In 2010 during her tenure as Railway Minister, a car in Banerjee’s convoy was hit by a truck. The TMC supremo was returning from a rally at the then Maoist bastion of Lalgarh. She had alleged that it was an attempt on her life.
Such incidents, however, did not occur since TMC came to power in 2011 and Banerjee became the chief minister. However, history returned to haunt her Wednesday at Nandigram.
The attacks on her had been greeted with derision by her political opponents.
CPI(M) had on several occasions alleged that Banerjee had herself scripted the ‘dramas’ of being attacked to gain sympathy.
The TMC has claimed that Wednesday’s incident was a ‘well planned conspiracy’ by BJP to ‘remove’ her from the poll campaign. Banerjee has described herself as a ‘street fighter’ many times in the past.
“Many people don’t want her to campaign for the elections. They want her to be removed from their path. The BJP should be ashamed that it has stooped so low that its supporters are attacking a woman,” TMC MP and spokesperson Sougata Roy said.
The BJP has denied the allegation and said Banerjee is only trying to get sympathy votes.