In West Bengal's political circles, it was widely believed that after Mamata Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikhari was perhaps the only leader with a truly significant mass base of his own.
'When I asked Suvendu about the news that Didi was going to fight in his constituency, he said, 'Aami okhaney lorbo aar okhaney okey harabo (I will contest from there and defeat her there)' This was his comment while we were standing on the truck doing our roadshow.'
'The TMC has become a private limited company.'
"I say I am a 'big donkey' (Ami ekta boro gadha) for having failed to recognise them. I dont know (about it), but people say their 'empire' is worth Rs 5,000 crore and they will use money to buy votes. But don't vote for them," Banerjee told the rally.
The BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition party in West Bengal after winning 77 seats in the assembly polls last year, failed to win even a single civic body.
The BJP released its first list of 57 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls and fielded Suvendu Adhikari from his home turf of Nandigram, from where Trinamool Congress president and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already announced her candidature.
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
A blood-soaked Nandigram made Mamata Banerjee what she is today and underpins the hopes of the combustible West Bengal leader of clinching a third straight term in office.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
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