Nandigram, as expected, is turning out to be hotbed of politics

With State legislative Assembly polls in Bengal drawing closer, Nandigram, as expected, is turning out to be a hotbed of politics. And the alleged attack on the incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during a poll rally, has just added fuel to the fire. Nearly 48 hours have passed since she was either attacked (as alleged) or got injured accidentally while coming through a sea of people after filing her nomination from the Nandigram constituency, but still authorities could not pinpoint the cause of her uncalled-for injury. What is certain is that high voltage political event (or theatrics, as her political opponents would like to brand it!) has singularly overshadowed (positively and negatively) and virtually out-spaced all other political activities and campaigning across print, audio-visual media, social media, street corners, adda joins and elsewhere. Facing physical attacks is nothing new to the stormy petrel. In her formative years as a politician, two men had unwittingly catapulted Mamata Banerjee to the star status. They were neither her colleagues nor her aides. They were her assailants. Lalu Alam, younger brother of the then DYFI leader Badshah Alam and Muhammed Mukhtar, a former CITU leader, had attacked Mamata on two occasions when she was an opposition leader. Lalu Alam had dealt a near death blow on her on August 16, 1990. Lalu was then a member of the DYFI, CPM's youth wing. Mohammed Mukhtar, who had allegedly heckled Mamata and fired at her car in 1995 when she was going to meet the widow of a taxi driver who died in Lalbazar. There have been some more instances like this over the years.

This time round, it's different. She is the Chief Minister in her tenth year in office and for that matter, the only woman Chief Minister in the country. Call it arousing public sympathy or something else, but a street fighter that Mamata is, she knows exactly how to swing the mood of the people on the street. This time it has happened when the Saffron Brigade has nearly made people believe that they have wrested power from Mamata. There would be a large section who would believe what Mamata says now and there would be some who would be influenced to believe.

Little wonder therefore that there has been a rush of State BJP leaders to the SSKM Hospital, where she is getting treated, after initially branding it as a 'nutanki' (theatrics). This is notwithstanding the fact that so far there has been no official 'get well soon' message or tweet either from the PM or the Union Home Minister.

Her political bête noires may like to believe that she has actually fallen – physically and also fallen from the grace, but for some others, she may have actually stood back from a possible downfall! Who knows?