Thaindian News

Kolkata/Howrah, April 9 (IANS) The twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah saw two main protagonists of the coming West Bengal assembly elections - Chief Minister Buddahdeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee - launch simultaneous road shows, with both drawing large crowds Saturday.

Accompanied by thousands of supporters carrying the red flags, Bhattacharjee, also a politburo member of his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), was astride an open jeep that traversed eight kilomenters of his Jadavapore consitutency in the southern outskirts of the city.

Bhattacharjee seemed in high spirits, as he received bouquets, shook hands and liberally distributed autographs to the people who thronged the route of the chief minister’s first roadshow for the upcoming elections.

The around four hour campaign stretched from the Jadavpur University and ended at Kamalgazi.

“This huge gathering is a good sing about our prospects. It shows the people are coming back to us,” said a beaming Bhattacharjee.

He denied that the opposition has succeeded in pegging him back to his constituency. “I have given lot of time to my constituency in the past. And I will soon go out to the districts to campaign for the Left Front candidates,” he said.

In contrast, it was Banerjee’s sixth procession in less than two weeks.

Heading a large crowd of several thousand Trinamool activists, supporters and other people, Banerjee walked six kilometres in the evening from the Bengal Engineering and Science University campus at Shibpur to the Sammilani club at Salkoa.

She covered three assembly segments during the roadshow, where a large number of Congressmen also took part.