Mamata Banerjee walked, waved, smiled and exuded confidence as she wrapped up her campaign for the 2026 Assembly elections with a road show on Monday.
She did not break a sweat while many of those accompanying her huffed and puffed in the heat and humidity. And the way some of the women lining the streets responded to her suggested the chief minister had lost none of her fabled rapport with them.
“Didi amra achhi (Didi, we are there),” many women cried out as Mamata covered nearly 8km on foot from Sukanta Setu in Jadavpur to the Gopalnagar crossing in the Bhabanipur constituency.
“Today, after 6pm, others will fly out of Calcutta because they are outsiders. But Didi will be here with us — that is her reach, her connection with us,” said advocate Moumita Ganguly, waiting at the Gopalnagar crossing for over an hour to greet “Didi”.
Crowds of women waited at several intersections to cheer the Trinamool chief on. Mamata did not disappoint them.
“Didi has made education accessible to all. My son studies at a state-aided school, and he gets free uniform and books,” said Soma Maity, a woman in her 30s. “When I went to school, buying books was not easy for my parents.”
Women and safety have been key themes this election, especially in the light of the August 2024 rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Hospital and the alleged gang rape of a law student inside her college in Kasba last year.
Bengal is unsafe for women, the BJP campaign has been hollering from every street corner and dais.
Some of the women waiting along Mamata’s route contested the charge.
“Sometimes I travel as late as 11pm, from my workplace in Alipore to my home in Kasba, and I have not felt unsafe,” said Sweta Rai, 37, who works in a nationalised bank.
Rai did not give Mamata an absolute clean chit, though.
“I feel the chief minister has to be able to separate the good from the bad in her party. Some elements in the party need to be removed,” Rai said.
“Our expectations and demands are very basic -- good roads, proper drainage and water supply,” she added.
Mamata ended the road show, and with it her campaign, at 5.40pm. For two short stretches -- Dhakuria to Golpark and The BSS School to Deodar Street -- she had hopped onto a motorbike.
Many Muslim women watching her rally pass said they feared being pushed to the margins if the BJP came to power.
“How can we trust a party that questions our identity? We have been here for more than 100 years, and yet we have to prove our identity?” said Anjum Ada, 49, who runs a roadside shop selling potato wafers and beverages opposite the Survey Building in Gopalnagar.
“My sister was called for a hearing during the special intensive revision. It’s the same government that did the (November 2016) demonetisation, CAA-NRC, and the SIR. How can we trust them with our state and reject the one woman who has always stood up for us?”
Many of the women lauded Mamata for her welfare schemes.
“Being a woman, she thinks about women. The ₹1,500 a month that her government provides helps me cater to my children’s basic needs,” said Metiabruz resident Salma Khatun.
Conversations with the women suggested that many -- Hindu and Muslim -- would vote for Mamata because she is a woman: “She is like us.”
“I shall vote for a party that stands for harmony because, in all other things, all parties are the same,” said Sahana, a bank manager.
“This one woman is standing tall at a time the leaders of other parties are being sent to jail,” she signed off.