Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee led a 3- km march as she kicked off her election campaign in Siliguri today. Thousands of women marched with Banerjee around the same time Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata.

The party said the march, which witnessed a large crowd, was organised in protest against the rising prices of fuel, including LPG. The rally originated at Mallaguri More and ended at Safdar Hasmi Chowk.

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Thousands of people walked with Banerjee, who carried a replica of the orange cooking gas cylinder, through prominent thoroughfares in what observers said was a show of strength ahead of the Assembly elections.

According to TMC leaders, the “impressive” rally will bolster the confidence of party workers.

Trinamul Congress election candidates Prof Om Prakash Mishra, Captain Nalini Ranjan Roy, Choton Kisku, Gautam Deb, Khageswar Roy from Siliguri, Matigara-Naxalbari, Phansidewa, Dabgram-Fulbari and Rajganj Assembly constituencies, respectively, along with INTTUC state president Dola Sen, Bengali actors-turned MPs Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty, and Rajya Sabha MP from the Hills Shanta Chhetri were among those present in the rally. Representatives of different development boards in the Hills also took part in the march.

However, a section of senior party leaders who are not happy, especially following the selection of Prof Mishra as the candidate from the Siliguri seat, skipped the event.

Hundreds of people stood on either side of the rally route to take photos of Banerjee with their mobile phones. The people cheered and chanted the new Trinamul Congress slogan ‘Khela Hobe’ (the game is on).

People belonging to different faiths, including nuns from the Missionaries of Charity from Pradhannagar and a monk representing the Ramakrishna Vedanta Ashram, were also seen among the crowd. “I have come here to see Mamata Banerjee,” said the monk Swami Raghabananda.

T-shirts with the ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan printed on them were in high demand at Mallaguri More, with some youths selling each at Rs 100.

The town, meanwhile, turned into a fortress with heavy deployment of security personnel.

Police officers said around 15,000 people walked with Banerjee, even though party leaders claimed that the turnout was around 50,000 people.

“Around 50,000 people from the four Assembly constituencies, mostly women, participated in the rally on the eve of International Women’s Day. It will definitely boost the morale of the party workers,” said the Darjeeling district Trinamul Congress (Plains) president, Ranjan Sarkar.

This was Banerjee’s third such march in Siliguri. On 3 January, 2020, she had led a 4.5-km rally from Mallaguri More to Bagha Jatin Park against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act , National Register of Citizens and National Population Register. Banerjee led her first such march in Siliguri as the chief minister on 14 March, 2016, when she walked on the same route to mark Nandigram Diwas.

The stage from where Banerjee addressed the crowd today was set up in between the Congress and BJP party offices at Safdar Hasmi Chowk.

Some contractual health workers who had been engaged at Dr Chhang’s Super Specialty Hospital after the health department had requisitioned the hospital for the treatment of patients suffering from Covid-19 were also beside Hill Cart Road to draw the attention of Banerjee as they demanded reappointment.