West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is engaged in a fierce battle with the BJP to retain power in Bengal, today alleged that BJP workers chased the Trinamool Congress candidate in Arambagh, Sujata Mondal, and hit her on the head near the polling booth. The BJP was quick to dismiss the charge as baseless and yet another “false allegation”.

“They have inflicted serious injury on our Scheduled Caste candidate Sujata, when she visited a booth. They also hit another candidate in Khanakul. In Canning East, security forces prevented our nominee Shaukat Mollah from entering a booth. There had been numerous such instances of attack on our candidates, party workers across the state,” Mamata Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting at Kalchini in Alipurduar district.

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The BJP, however, has dismissed the allegation as another “false claim”.

“The BJP has lost 140 of its karyakartas (members) under Mamata Banerjee’s watch as Chief Minister and Home Minister of Bengal. The politics of violence is endemic in TMC’s DNA. Mamata Banerjee is known to make false claims. She did it in her own case when she alleged that she was attacked in Nandigram. Upset at being maligned, people of Nandigram decided to vote against her,” said BJP leader Amit Malviya, who is also the state in-charge of Bengal.

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The ruling Trinamool faces a formidable challenge in the form of the BJP, which has gained significant roots in the state in the last few years. Many top leaders of the ruling Trinamool switched over to the BJP in the last few months.

Mamata Banerjee has framed the challenge from the BJP as one between the insiders (Bengalis) and the outsiders (the largely Hindi-speaking BJP at the Centre).

The claim is often dismissed by the BJP including PM Modi.

“Didi, O Mamata didi (PM referring to Mamata Banerjee) You say we are outsiders. But the land of Bengal doesn’t regard anyone as an outsider,” PM Modi said on several occasions, adding that for Bengal, “Nobody is an outsider”.

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The battle for West Bengal is spread over eight phases and four weeks. The results of the voting will not be announced until May 2.

West Bengal, a state of 92 million people, has never been ruled by the BJP. The BJP, which had no footprints in the state till about 2016, made significant gains first in local elections and then in general elections. BJP won 3 seats in the 2014 Assembly Elections in the state and 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. 

Mamata Banerjee stormed to power in 2011 after dislodging a 34-year-old Left regime. Since then, she has been ruling the state unchallenged. Her party currently holds 211 of 295 seats in the outgoing state assembly.