Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged Left-leaning people twice to cast their votes in favour of her party, instead of the CPM, in a bid to keep the BJP out of power in Bengal.

The Bengal chief minister made the first appeal at the Trinamul Congress’s rally in Jhargram’s Lalgarh. Later in the day, she said it during the release of Trinamul’s manifesto for the Assembly elections.

“Those friends of mine who still remain Leftist, I congratulate them and whoever else is saying “No Vote to BJP”,” said the chief minister during the manifesto release at her residence in Calcutta.

“But they (the Left-leaning voters) know this, that they (the Left Front or the Sanyukt Morcha of which it is part now) won’t be able to come to power. They shouldn’t waste their important votes for other (non-BJP) parties. They should all vote for Trinamul. This is my plea before all Leftist friends,” added Mamata.

Wednesday was the first time since she came to power in 2011 that the chief minister was so direct in asking Left-leaning voters to vote for her instead.

At the rally in Jhargram, Mamata said: “There were very good activities by the Left Front in areas like Gopiballabhpur. Along with Gopiballabhpur, I will request my Left friends from Jamboni, Lalgarh and Binpur, who want to fight against the BJP, please cast your votes for us. Please don’t waste your valued votes in favour of the CPM.”

Trinamul trailed the BJP in three of the four Assembly segments in Jhargram in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, purportedly because of Left-leaning people voting for the BJP in order to defeat her party.

“I request all of you to come together to stand united (against the BJP), because in the last Lok Sabha polls, Jhargram (the Lok Sabha seat) was won by the BJP. They won it, but did not do anything for the people, compared to what our government did,” Mamata pleaded.

Trinamul had a very poor show in all four Jungle Mahal districts where the party lagged behind in 31 out of 40 Assembly seats in the last general election.

Mamata, however, accused the BJP of attacking her in the style of the CPM, and alleged that CPM leaders had switched sides to become the saffron camp’s goons now.

“In the CPM regime, I was beaten in the head, hands, stomach and eyes, which necessitated numerous surgeries. All that remained were my legs. Now they attacked there to keep me from the campaign. Earlier, the CPM used to beat me up, and now the BJP has acquired that role,” she said at Lalgarh.

After Mamata’s appeal, the CPM lambasted her.

“Out of her fear of defeat, she did not even think twice before making such an outrageous proposal. Her party systemically tried over the years to break the Left’s back in Bengal, to eliminate the Opposition. Now, she is unable to handle a natural consequence of a process she started,” said Pulin Bihari Baske, the CPM’s district committee secretary in Jhargram.

“Anyway, Left voters will not vote for her,” he added.

Mamata’s appeal made the BJP anxious, sources in the saffron camp admitted.

“She is trying to grasp at straws now. But these appeals won’t make a difference to the people, who have made up their mind to bring the BJP to power, for true poriborton (change) here,” said Chandaneswar Sengupta, the Jhargram chief of the BJP’s youth wing.