Mamata Banerjee campaigns in Narayangarh. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Narayangarh (West Midnapore): If you have to do as the Romans do in Rome, Mamata Banerjee knew what she had to prescribe in the doctor’s territory.

Setting foot on a turf identified with Surjya Kanta Mishra, the health minister as well as a qualified doctor, Mamata said that if she came to power in Bengal, the first hospital under her government would be set up in Narayangarh.

The state health minister had been winning the Assembly polls from the Narayangarh seat continuously since 1991. Mamata devoted the bulk of her speech to health care and trained her guns on the minister.

She hinted that private-public partnerships would have a role to play if the Trinamul Congress was voted to power.

“He has destroyed the health of Bengal’s people,” Mamata said, referring to Mishra but without naming him. “Has he built a single big hospital here?” Mamata asked the audience at Konarpur, 7km from Narayangarh town where Mishra was camping.

The crowd, numbering around 6,000, chorused: “No.”

“If Surya Kant Atta (Trinamul candidate) wins, the first big hospital will come up here. It will have all the facilities,” Mamata said. “Heart, liver and kidney transplant, every arrangement will be there. We have promised in our manifesto. Those who will develop the hospital will have to ensure that the poor are taken care of.” Mishra has held the health portfolio since 2001.

“For 35 years, the CPM couldn’t do this,” Mamata said. “He couldn’t deliver health facilities to the people of his constituency, what will he do for the rest of the state? Why vote for people who can’t even build a hospital?”

The Trinamul chief has addressed rallies in the constituencies of most Left Front ministers, including chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, finance minister Asim Dasgupta and industries minister Nirupam Sen.

The Trinamul chief iterated her promise of building multi-specialty hospitals in each sub-divisional town. “For getting doctors and nurses, we will focus on recruiting from local areas. There are doctors and nurses who want to work in their hometowns. In schools, colleges and hospitals preference will be given to locals,” she said.