Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Hooghly’s Khanakul on Friday for the panchayat poll campaign has been cancelled because of injuries she suffered while embarking from a helicopter after an emergency landing near Siliguri on Tuesday.

“We were informed this (Wednesday) afternoon that Didi (Mamata) would not be able to attend the campaign rally in Khanakul because of her injury. A senior leader said her programme could be rescheduled very soon,” said Ilias Chowdhury, Trinamul Congress’s Khanakul I block unit chief.

The chief minister was rushed to the SSKM Hospital in Calcutta after she had landed at the city airport on Tuesday afternoon. She suffered ligament injuries to her left knee and hip joint. Mamata was advised to take rest for a few days to heal the injuries, said a source.

On Wednesday afternoon, a team of senior officials and physicians from the SSKM visited Mamata at her Kalighat residence here and assessed her condition. A source said the Trinamul Congress chairperson was advised physiotherapy for speedy healing. The medical team would assess her situation again on Thursday.

She was scheduled to visit Khanakul’s Library Ground on Friday afternoon, to address a rally for her party’s candidates contesting in the rural polls. The preparations were all but over.

A senior Trinamul leader said Mamata’s visit to Khanakul, in Hooghly’s Arambagh sub-division, was important for the party, as the area is has developed a bit of a reputation as a stronghold of the BJP. In the 2021 elections, BJP won all four Assembly seats in the sub-division.

The chief minister started her campaign for the panchayat elections from Cooch Behar on Monday. She addressed another campaign rally in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.

A source in the Trinamul said although Mamata had no plans to take part in an extensive campaign for the rural polls, she had thought of addressing a few areas in north and south Bengal where Opposition parties, mainly the BJP, have developed some strength to challenge her hegemony.

A Trinamul source in Calcutta said she would have visited some strategic pockets, although her complete itinerary was not fully confirmed. He said she remains likely to visit East Midnapore, at least one district in the Jungle Mahal, and Birbhum.

“She is scheduled to visit Birbhum on Monday. Although there is no information of cancellation of that programme, we are in a fix now, over whether she would recover in good time,” said a Trinamul leader in Birbhum.

Several Trinamul seniors said she would not waste time once she starts feeling better, as she still remains bent on covering at least a half-dozen strategic areas in the campaign. “We should not forget that she campaigned in a wheelchair through the mega Assembly elections of 2021, which took place over months. She is not the sort who would confine herself to her room for rest while the party goes into panchayat elections in a matter of days,” said a Trinamul leader.