A drenched Mamata Banerjee rode pillion at the head of a caravan of 2,000 vehicles and broke into rural Bengal today, taking the war for Writers' beyond her pocketboroughs in Calcutta. 'Give me your votes to take possession of the red building. Oust the bankrupt communists this time,' Mamata told the 50,000-strong crowd at her show of strength, mounted in defiance of an undeclared CPM curfew. Firing back at black flags and 'go-back' posters put up by the CPM along the route to the rally site, she said amid blinding rain: 'There is no going back in my dictionary. I never retreat. I always move forward.' But the pitfalls that lurk on the slushy road from Chamkaitala confronted the Trinamul ranks no sooner than Mamata's roar died down. Snaking their way back to Calcutta, a Trinamul convoy came under attack from an armed group hiding behind bushes along the road. Two Trinamul supporters were shot at while returning from the rally. Police said the condition of one is critical. In the ambush on the road, at least eight were injured. Alleged CPM supporters also exploded bombs and pelted stones at some places on the convoy's route. When news of the attack spread, Mamata, who was on her way to Calcutta, turned back and rushed to the spot. She cut her way through a three-km traffic snarl and remained there till the last of the vehicles left the place safe. However, angry Trinamul workers gheraoed their party leader and Union minister Ajit Panja for refusing to do a Mamata. When the cadre demanded that he, too, take a U-turn for the attack site, Panja was initially reluctant since he was scheduled to catch a flight. But the infuriated Trinamul workers blocked the convoy and heckled Panja, forcing him to turn back. At the rally, Mamata told hysterical supporters that the 'next elections will be held under President's rule. Remember, Jyoti Basu came to power 23 years ago following President's rule. He will have to leave under another President's rule'. She announced that a team of MPs from the ruling coalition at the Centre would visit the state to study the situation. 'I believe they will recommend President's rule here,' she said. Referring to the CPM youth wing's proposed meeting in the same place on August 11, Mamata said she would reach there the next day to teach them 'a good lesson', if attempts were made to disrupt normal life. As the roads were blocked by vehicles ferrying the crowd, Mamata had to reach the rally venue on the pillion of a two-wheeler. There was a near-total bandh in Chamkaitala. Not a single shop was open. Four nearby villages were deserted following an exodus prompted by a CPM ultimatum to villagers against attending the rally. Bijoli Mahato of Kharir Bati village said: 'CPM leaders came to our village last night and asked us to choose between bullets and tomorrow's meeting. We had no other way but to stay away.' But as the meeting ended, thousands of villagers, many of them women, waited along the road to have a glimpse of Mamata.