Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief, has done it all and proved that she is not the one to shy away from a good political fight. As a student leader in the 70s, she danced on the car of a political leader during a protest, in 1990 her skull was fractured in an attack at a political rally, in 1993 she was dragged by her hair, down the steps of the Writers’ Building and pushed out. And in 2021, the 66-year-old led a Trinamool Congress march in Kolkata on a wheelchair and sent out a warning: “A wounded tiger is very dangerous.”

Back in action two days after being wounded in an alleged attack in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee –seated in the wheelchair with her leg in a cast and her trademark Hawaii chappal missing since the doctor has advised her to wear an orthopaedic sandal — started from her Kalighat home and reached the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Mayo Road crossing on Sunday.

The wheelchair-bound chief minister led the procession along a five-kilometre route from Gandhi’s statue in the Maidans to Hazra Road intersection, located close to her home at Kalighat in south Kolkata. Though looking a little drawn, the Trinamool leader did not let go of the opportunity to attack the BJP in the run-up to the eight-phase assembly elections in the state scheduled between March 27 and April 29.

After the march, she said, “I am injured and unwell but my goal remains the same. My body is bruised. Doctors have suggested that I rest for 15 days but I will continue to travel across Bengal on a wheelchair. If I rest, who will reach out to the people?”

“I will never bow down. Remember, a wounded tiger is more dangerous than a dead one,” she said, adding, “Bhanga payei khela hobe (The game is on, even with a broken leg). The conspiracy in Bengal has to be defeated.”

Also read: How ‘Khela Hobe’ became central to Trinamool Congress’ game in West Bengal polls

The Chief Minister, who was in Bankura on Tuesday, again on a wheelchair, targeted Home Minister Amit Shah saying, “Will HM run the country or decide who will get arrested or beaten up, or will he decide which agency will chase whom? Who is running Election Commission? I hope it’s not you, Amit Shah. We want free and fair election. He’s intervening in day to day working of EC.”

Banerjee was injured in Nandigram on Wednesday evening when the door of her SUV slammed against her left foot. She alleged that four or five people deliberately pushed the door resulting in her injury.

Banerjee is contesting from Nandigram against her former aide and ex-minister Suvendu Adhikari, in what promises to be an edge-of-the-seat contest. With MLAs and party leaders abandoning her by dozens, Mamata Banerjee decided to take the fight to the enemy’s den and announced her candidature from Nandigram, the seat Adhikari claims is his fiefdom.

Trinamool’s sweep in Nandigram in 2007 is widely seen as one of the key factors that catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011 and Adhikari is seen as was the architect of the movement that ousted the Left from Nandigram in 2007 after a bloody battle over land rights of farmers.

What result this political fight yields remains to be seen, but one thing is sure when it comes to Mamata Banerjee not a single moment is dull. Whether on a car bonnet or in a wheelchair, didi knows how to put up a good political fight.