Mamata plans whirlwind tour of North Bengal

She was speaking at a press conference called to announce that her campaign schedule in north Bengal was being brought forward to April 10.

The rally at Kasba will be attended by almost all top Trinamool leaders of South Kolkata. However,Banerjee herself will not be present in Kasba as she will be taking part in another rally at Howrah,covering four constituencies of that district.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is scheduled to hold a roadshow at his constituency in Jadavpur on April 9. During her walk from Bijon Setu at Kasba,Mamata will cover the same stretch that Bhattacharjee will cover later that day.

After the rally,Mamata will leave for north Bengal on April 10. She will highlight the issue of violence during her whirlwind tour of north Bengal,54 constituencies of which go to polls on April 18.

The Trinamool chief will hold rallies at Malda on April 10,South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur on April 11,Jalpaiguri on April 12,Cooch Behar on April 13 and Siliguri,Islampur and Chopra on April 14. After a rally at Murshidabad on April 15,she will take a break and return to her mother for the Bengali New Year. From April 16 and 24,Mamata will campaign in the constituencies going to polls in the second and third phases in Nadia,Birbhum,North and South 24 Parganas and Kolkata.

The Union railway minister smiled as she thanked her alliance partner,Congress,for providing her with a helicopter,which will be used extensively in north Bengal.

Mamata said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be addressing a rally in Kolkata,where she will participate. “The timings of Congress leaders are not matching with our rallies in the early phase. In most cases we call Congress candidates to our meeting and vice versa,” she said.