Forget 'Bengal wants its daughter': Babul Supriyo's new dig at Mamata Banerjee

After Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday released the party's candidate list for 291 seats and announced that she will be contesting from Nandigram, Union minister Babul Supriyo took a fresh dig at Banerjee. "Forget Trinamul's multi-crore campaign of Bengal wants its daughter. Mamata proved how farcical the campaign is because forget Bengal, Bhowanipore — her home seat — does not actually want her," the BJP leader said in a video.

'Bengal wants its daughter' is Trinamool's election slogan which harps on the image of Mamata Banerjee as the daughter of the soil against a new face, or a face from outside Bengal, which BJP might be planning. However, the party leadership has clarified that its CM face will be someone from Bengal.

Nandigram of Paschim Medinipur played a crucial role in springing Mamata in power in 2008, as the Singur-Nandigram land movement and the 2007 violence in Nandigram gave political leverage to Mamata against the Left government. Mamata announced the decision to contest from Nandigram after heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP.

Initially, she had said she would contest from both Bhowanipore, her traditional seat, and Nandigram. But as she announced the name of the candidates on Friday, she announced veteran Trinamool leader Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay from the seat. However, she said she may contest from Tollygunge seat, though she announced incumbent MLA Aroop Biswas's name.

Mamata's move to contest from Nandigram has been interpreted by the BJP as 'escaping from defeat in her own seat'.

"First they challenged Mamata to contest from Nandigram. Then they said that if she contests from 2 seats it will show lack of confidence. She has decided to contest only fromNandigram. Now they are saying she has run away from Bhawanipur. You can't win them all, can you?" former Union minister Yashwant Sinha wrote on Twitter.