“Look, she has come down from Bangalore to cast her vote,” Mamata Banerjee pointed at a woman in a green sari after giving her a tight hug outside Mitra Institution, where she cast her vote during the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

The Bengal chief minister — in keeping with her practice of turning up at the polling booth on Harish Mukherjee Street in the final hours of polling — had reached Mitra Institution, which is part of Ward No. 73, at 4.30pm.

On the way to the polling station from her 30B Harish Chatterjee Street home — barely 400 metres away — her convoy pulled up at least thrice as the chief minister made it a point to greet people of her para (neighbourhood).

“The mother of one of her childhood friends lives in that house.... She stops by in front of that house to greet the elderly lady,” said Kajari Banerjee, Trinamool councillor of Ward No. 73 and Mamata’s sister-in-law, pointing towards a house in a lane off Harish Mukherjee Street.

Shouts of “Didi, Didi, Joy Bangla, Joy Bangla” filled the air the moment the chief minister — a voter registered in Kolkata South, a constituency she had represented in the past — got off the car and began walking towards the polling premises. She cast her vote in Part No. 209.

Trinamool veteran Mala Roy, who had won by over 1.55 lakh votes in 2019, has been retained as the party nominee from the constituency against the BJP’s Deboshree Chowdhury and the CPM’s Saira Shah Halim.

“Didi, I came from Bangalore this morning, I have cast my vote,” shouted Bindu Das when Mamata, surrounded by security personnel, was about to enter the polling premises after greeting around 200 people assembled near the venue.

The chief minister stopped and looked at the woman, prompting her security guards to make way for the woman to come forward.

“Khub bhalo korechho (You have done the right thing),” the chief minister said, holding her in a tight embrace, before introducing the woman to her aides and vanishing inside the polling station.

Das, who has been living in Bengaluru with her family for years, was left awestruck by the embrace. “I’m a fan of Didi. This election is very important, that’s why I came down to vote,” Das told this correspondent.

Around 4.37pm, Mamata emerged from the polling premises. Immediately, several local Trinamool leaders, such as Kajari and her aides, approached her.

“What has been the polling percentage here?” Mamata asked them. She also asked for updates about the polling in neighbouring areas, suchas Ekbalpore. Some ofthe aides whispered into her ears.

“This is the trend; Kolkata (South) has a tradition of low turnouts,” the chief minister, who appeared jovial, was heard telling her aides.

Unlike the rest of Bengal, where turnout figures generally cross 80 per cent, the polling percentage in Kolkata South has tended to hover between 55 and 70 per cent in the last few elections.

Before the convoy rolled again, a party functionary went up to her and complained that the BJP nominee and her aides, with the central forces in tow, were going to different parts of the constituency and accusing Trinamool of vitiating the poll process.

“Let them do whatever they want; everything is under control,” Mamata said before leaving for her home.