KOLKATA: Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her allegation that a conspiracy was hatched to attack her in Nandigram on March 10, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee on Sunday said the TMC supremo should apologize to the people there for making false claims.
Chatterjee, who has been nominated by the saffron party from Chunchura assembly seat, said she and other leaders of her party had gone to the hospital, where Banerjee was admitted after sustaining injuries, but the "CM refused to meet us and continued to allege that BJP men pushed her".
The chief minister, after filing her nomination in Nandigram, went electioneering in the constituency on March 10, during which she fell and sustained severe injuries on her left leg, hip, forearm, neck and shoulder, with her party claiming that the BJP had orchestrated the attack, a charge denied by the saffron camp.
The Election Commission also ruled that the CM suffered injuries following an accident, and not an attack.
The Hooghly MP further said that Banerjee herself contradicted the report filed in the matter by her government's top officials, "which all the more makes it clear that she was not hit by anyone and it was a mishap".
Taking potshots at the TMC boss, she said "the plaster on the CM's left foot was replaced with bandage in just 24 hours, and that was something unusual".
"She was subjected to many physical attacks in the past (in the 90s and early 2000) but we are of the view that she is trying to evoke sympathy by capitalising on this particular mishap.
She wants to project herself as a woman who has survived another attack.
"We wish her to recovery from the injuries she sustained. The BJP will attack her politically, but we don't believe in physical attacks," she told reporters.
Chatterjee also sought to know "why no video footage of the March 10 incident was available yet."
Banerjee, who was discharged from hospital two days ago, took part in a rally here earlier in the day, and iterated that the saffron camp plotted a conspiracy to stop her from hitting the campaign trail.