Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen in hospital with her left leg in a cast in a photo tweeted by her nephew Abhishek Banerjee this morning, a day after she alleged an attack in Nandigram, where she filed her nomination for the state election later this month.
Abhishek Banerjee, a Trinamool Congress MP, shared the image with a message targeting the BJP, which has mounted an aggressive campaign to try and oust the two-time Chief Minister and her Trinamool Congress from power in Bengal.
“BJP brace yourselves to see the power of people of BENGAL on Sunday, May 2nd. Get ready,” he tweeted.
Mamata Banerjee, 66, said last evening she was pushed by four or five people against her car and had the door shut on her at a time when there were no police personnel around her.
Looking pale and pointing to her leg, she said, “See how it is swelling up”. Asked if it was a planned attack, she said, “Of course it is a conspiracy… there were no policemen around me”. She appeared to be in pain while speaking.
She had plans to stay the night in Nandigram after filing her election papers but was taken to a hospital in Kolkata, 130 km away, after the incident.
According to doctors at the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, there were injuries to her foot, shoulder and neck and she had been given painkillers.
“Initial examination suggests severe bony injuries in her left ankle, foot and bruises, injuries in right shoulder, forearm and neck. The Chief Minister complained of chest pain, breathlessness since the incident. She is kept under close watch for 48 hours,” Dr Manimoy Bandopadhya, the director of SSKM Hospital, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The Chief Minister was taken through a battery of tests including neurological tests and an X-ray of her left leg. Late in the night, she was sent to the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences at SSKM for an MRI. According to sources, she has sustained injuries on lower limbs which are swollen and painful.
The BJP, which had blamed the Trinamool after its chief JP Nadda’s convoy came under attack in Bengal in December, called the incident a stunt by Bengal’s ruling party. “Not one eye witness seems to corroborate Mamata Banerjee’s ‘attack’ version. People of Nandigram are upset and angry at her for blaming them and bringing disrepute,” tweeted Bengal BJP.
