Mamata Banerjee asks supporters not to block the road during her walk in Hooghly on Sunday. Picture by Amit Datta

Nov. 15: She walks 45 minutes a day on the treadmill and avoids heavy meals and oily food. She has lots of muri instead, washed down with cups of tea with a little sugar and milk — not to mention her capacity for fasting.

Mamata Banerjee takes good care of her health. And she did her lipid profile no harm today when she walked nearly 7km of rural roads in about two hours and 20 minutes, doing a creditable 3kmph despite being stopped by crowds throughout the journey.

Her march from Nandakuthi in Hooghly district to Tarakeswar — along the same route that pilgrims take to the famous Shiva temple in Shravan — came on the hottest November afternoon in recent memory when the minimum temperature was 8 degrees above normal.

Years ago, shortly after ascending the hot seat, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had played the “people-friendly” chief minister by hopping onto a cycle van to visit Usti, a South 24-Parganas village racked by serial robberies. Today, it was Mamata’s turn to show off her common touch — and prove she was fit enough to storm another CPM citadel with lakhs behind her.

After inaugurating the Nalikul-Tarakeswar double line, the railway minister arrived at Nandakuthi just before 4pm to start her padayatra against the CPM’s “reign of terror”. It turned into a carnival.

At Nandakuthi, nothing could be seen along the road towards Tarakeswar except people lining its two sides, leaving just enough space for Mamata to pass. Drumbeats announced the start of her walk. Banners hung along the road and from trees. From the trees also hung numerous men and boys.

As Mamata passed by, crowds kept joining the procession which, by the time it reached Tarakeswar, would itself have been about 1km long.

Mamata was at its very heart. The frenzied crowds surged towards her from all sides, but her guards formed a tight ring. The Trinamul chief walked within that small circle, moving this way and that along the Z-grade security men’s chain of hands.

She made the first 5km in 65 minutes — at a brisk 4.6kmph — but was later slowed down by the crowds. The more she told them not to, the more they tried to run towards her, the women sometimes blowing conches.

Yet few could see her. She mostly stayed hidden behind the guards and the immediate crowd around her. She had a microphone but, for once, could not be heard over the din.

What Mamata could not say, the crowds did. They threatened to skin local CPM leader Anil Basu, Biman Bose and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

“Anil Basu/Biman/Buddhadeb-er chamra, khule nebo amra,” they shouted. Another slogan went: “Aye CPM dekhe jaa, Mamatar khamata (CPM, see Mamata’s power).”

Aptly, Mamata’s march coincided with her party snatching two agricultural co-operatives from the CPM in its bastion of Hooghly after 20 years. Trinamul bagged all four seats in Arambagh and all six at Dhaniakhali.

Perhaps it was the Singur effect — the abandoned Nano site is about 10km from Nandakuthi. The areas through which she marched, though, are represented by a Marxist MP and two Left MLAs.

“There will be lots of bloodshed,” said a Trinamul supporter, who was dancing. “We want blood now.”

In the crowd was Ruma Dhara, a young woman from a village about 25km from Nandakuthi, who said she was a “designer”. In her Madhyamik, Ruma secured a first division in aggregate but a “back” in maths. She paints saris with fabric paint, and charges around Rs 150 for each. Why was she walking with Mamata? Because she had heard Didi would give jobs to anyone who is a “Class VIII pass”.

It grew dark as the procession neared Loknath. Mamata lit a torch and carried on. As Tarakeswar approached, people kept joining her in greater numbers till it all began to look a little like a pilgrimage.