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Image Credit: Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Mamata Banerjee hits streets a day after Amit Shah held mega roadshow in Kolkata

| @indiablooms | May 15, 2019, at 10:24 pm

Kolkata, May 15 (IBNS): A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah held a mega roadshow here, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee hit the streets in a show of strength on Wednesday.

Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, also marked protest against the vandalisation of Bengali's iconic social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's bust at the Vidyasagar College in north Kolkata. She began her roadshow on Wednesday from Beleghata and ended at Shyambazar, the place where the Trinamool began its journey in 1998.

The Trinamool chief walked the distance amid chanting of anti-Narendra Modi slogans, which also urged people to vote for her party.

West Bengal has turned out to be a battleground for a major face-off between Trinamool and BJP ahead of the last phase of Lok Sabha polls with several top saffron leaders parked in the state for campaigning.

The political rift between the two parties reached at peak on Tuesday after Shah's roadshow was disturbed when a scuffle broke out between Trinamool and BJP workers outside the Calcutta University in College Street area.

While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee sharply attacked the saffron party, Shah on Wednesday said the ruling party hatched a conspiracy to win the "lost Lok Sabha polls".

Shah at a press conference said: "We were outside the Vidyasagar college and the gate of the college was intact. Then who vandalised the bust? It was a conspiracy by Trinamool and they vandalised the bust. Who broke the locks of the college? How could BJP workers get the keys of the college room? All these prove that Trinamool goons vandalised the bust to win the lost battle."

A First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged against Shah.

Nine Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal will go to polls in the last lap on May 19. Poll results will be announced on May 23.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission said no campaign can be held after 10 pm on Thursday because of the law and order situation in the state.

While Modi will hold two rallies in the state on Thursday, the West Bengal Chief Minister will reschedule Friday's scheduled programmes to tomorrow.

Images: Avishek Mitra/IBNS, Amit Shah Twitter

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