Kolkata: In an unprecedented act, former West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee was seen slapping a party worker during a protest march in Kolkata on Wednesday.
This is an indication of growing frustration in the leader who faced a massive defeat in the Assembly elections followed by a rebellion by a large section of her party MPs and MLAs, political observers believe.
Despite having gone through several political upheavals in her long career, Mamata has not been known to behave in this manner with party workers.
A video that has now gone viral purportedly shows a man attempting to manage the crowd and clear a path for Mamata as she moves through the gathering.
Moments later, she seems to lose her cool and slaps the party worker, as reported by News18.
The video was shared by BJP MP Raju Bista, who criticised the former CM over the incident.
“Mamata Banerjee slapped a man during a TMC protest. The man was trying to control the crowd and make way for Mamata. But Mamata lost her cool and slapped her own party worker,” Bista wrote in a post on X.
Over the last 15 years, Mamata has never faced resistance during such events and was clearly upset by repeated obstructions to the protest march, over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl that she led from Ballygunge Phari to Hazra More.
BJP workers interfered and there were altercations with the matches, forcing the police to resort to lathi charge. Eggs were also thrown at the TMC men and “Chor Chor” slogans raised by the the BJP supporters.
The TMC had obtained permission from the Calcutta High Court to organise the protest march that was attended by the party’s youth wing.
Mamata condemned the alleged attack on TMC workers by BJP. She alleged that the BJP carried out a “planned rampage”, assaulting men and women alike, with “the city police standing by as mute spectators”.
