Asiya Bibi, who has switched from the CPM to the Trinamul, at Monday’s Midnapore rally.(Samir Mondal)

The mother of a food martyr hogged the limelight at a Trinamul Congress rally far away from the venue where the Left Front commemorated the food movement on Monday.

Nurul Islam, the face of the Left movement in the state for long, was not among those who died in police action on August 31, 1959. The 12-year-old fell to a police bullet seven years later in his home town Basirhat while participating in a protest against food crisis.

Nurul’s mother Asiya Bibi, who occupied centre stage at the Trinamul rally in Midnapore town, accused the CPM of backing out on promises it had showered on her after her elder son’s death.

“CPM leaders had promised me a house and a job. I had attended a lot of rallies organised by the CPM but snapped my links with the party after it failed to keep any of its promises,” the octogenarian said on the sidelines of the rally.

Asiya Bibi, a crossover trump card who was taken to Midnapore from her home in Basirhat’s Tetulia in a car, said she first met Mamata Banerjee in Barasat two years ago.

“Since then I have been in touch with her. She is like my daughter,” the bereaved mother said while Trinamul workers jostled for a closer glimpse.

Also on the dais was Debu Malik, the father of Tapasi Malik, who was allegedly raped and murdered in Singur during Trinamul’s land acquisition protest.