Bongaon (West Bengal): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of orchestrating the cancellation of her helicopter ride to Bongaon. She warned the opposition party not to “play with” her because she cannot be cornered.
Banerjee, who was scheduled to land in Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, at 12:30 pm, said she was informed at 10 am that the hired helicopter “would not fly,” forcing her to travel by road.
She finally arrived at the venue around 2 pm to address a large rally, amid growing public anxiety over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list.
Mamata Banerjee traveled by road
A senior bureaucrat said Banerjee’s helicopter ride to Bongaon for a political rally on Tuesday was canceled after officials discovered the aircraft used for the trip was operating with an expired license. Banerjee traveled by road to Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district, about 104 km from Kolkata.
The Chief Minister said, “I haven’t traveled by helicopter in the last seven or eight months. Today, I planned to come here and then go to Thakurnagar. Everything was pre-booked, but at 10 a.m., I received a message saying the helicopter wouldn’t be flying!” She blamed “political reasons” for the cancellation.
“I suddenly got a chance to meet people”
Making this problem a campaign issue, Banerjee said the road trip gave her a chance to meet people unexpectedly. Banerjee said, “They started creating obstacles before the elections began, but it didn’t help them. In fact, it helped me. Along the way, I met a lot of people. It became a huge public outreach.”
Intensifying her attack, the Trinamool Congress supremo warned the BJP against attempts to intimidate her. “Don’t try to play with me. You won’t be able to defeat me politically by fighting me,” she said. She added that she mostly travels by road and doesn’t rely on helicopters. “I can’t be cornered,” she said.
Promising to fight to the end, Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP and the Election Commission of creating an atmosphere of fear through the SIR process and warned that Bengal would oppose any attempt to take away citizens’ rights.
