West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greets party activists as she leaves SSKM Hospital in a wheel-chair after being discharged, in Kolkata on March 12. (PTI Photo)
Kolkata, March 12 (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was discharged from state-run SSKM Hospital here on Friday evening after doctors found her recovery to be "satisfactory".
Doctors took the decision after the 66-year-old TMC supremo repeatedly requested them to discharge her from the medical establishment.
Banerjee, seated on a wheelchair with her left foot plastered, greeted several party activists gathered outside the Woodburn Block of the hospital.
She left the hospital in her vehicle for her Kalighat residence.
Her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, party colleagues and state minister Firhad Hakim were present at the medical establishment.
"Her condition has improved a lot and she repeatedly insisted to be discharged from the hospital. She will be able to move with restrictions but she needs to come back for another round of check-up within a week," the doctor said.
Banerjee fell and suffered severe injuries in her left ankle and foot and right shoulder, forearm and neck after she was allegedly pushed by 4-5 unidentified persons on Wednesday evening during her campaigning in Nandigram seat, from where she is contesting in this assembly election.
She was rushed to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata from Purba Medinipur district through a green corridor and was kept under observation for 48 hours.
BJP leaders meet EC, demand independent inquiry into incident
A BJP delegation comprising Union Minister Piyush Goyal and party general secretary Bhupender Yadav on Friday met Election Commission officials and demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in which TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got injured.
The BJP delegation met poll panel officials hours after a six-member group of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders met the EC demanding a high-level probe into the alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister in Nandigram that led to her injury.
Besides Goyal and Yadav, party leaders Sambit Patra, Anirban Ganguly and Swapan Dasgupta were also in the BJP delegation.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Yadav said the BJP has demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in West Bengal's Nandigram on March 10 when Banerjee got injured.
Yadav, a general secretary of the BJP, said, “The party also requested the election commission to make public the video of Banerjee's rally in which she got injured.”
The BJP leader said once a candidate files nomination, the poll panel maintains a visual record of his public engagements.
The saffron party also demanded that special observers be appointed for the Nandigram Assembly seat from where Banerjee is contesting against her protege-turned-adversary the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari.
Earlier in the day, a TMC delegation met the Election Commission and demanded a high-level probe into the alleged attack on Banerjee in Nandigram and claimed it was not an “unfortunate incident”, but a conspiracy.
The TMC met the full EC team, including Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora, for over an hour and submitted a memorandum to it, highlighting how BJP leaders in West Bengal had threatened the chief minister through tweets and other remarks.
In the memorandum, the TMC has made allegations against Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Nandigram in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
TMC leaders had also met EC officials in Bengal on Thursday, following which the poll body sent a strongly-worded letter to the party on its memorandum over injuries to Banerjee during the campaign, saying it looks “undignified to even respond” to allegations that the poll panel is doing things in the state at the behest of a “particular party”.
