Exactly 10 years since then Trinamul minister Arup Roy had walked out slow-paced from the heavily secured chamber of Mamata Banerjee at the Writers' Buildings on the first year of her first term with a bouquet of flowers, wishes poured in from several corners for the Bengal chief minister in her third term, now in isolation since several of her ministerial colleagues, police officers and friends in the media tested Covid positive.
"Thank you very much @mkstalin for your wishes!" Mamata tweeted late on Wednesday evening. She also thanked Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and others who had wished her.
The reason was never specified but Mamata until Wednesday did not acknowledge her birthday, which on the website of the Lok Sabha, of which she is a seven-time former member, is mentioned as January 5, 1955. To her closest aides, Mamata has several times repeated that she was born on "Durga-Ashtami", though the records in Parliament speak otherwise.
On January 5, 2012, Roy, then minister of agriculture marketing, went early on in the day to wish the chief minister. She had sent him packing in less than five minutes. “Oh, that was nothing,” was all that Roy would say when prodded by newspersons present at Writers’ Buildings later in that day.
A similar incident happened with former legislator Debashree Roy when she went to greet Mamata on her birthday some years ago. Witnesses claim, the actor had to leave the 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street residence of Mamata almost in tears.
A verified Twitter handle "BanglarGorboMamata" that supports Mamata was the first to send out the birthday wish on Wednesday.
“Shubho janmadin didi. Banglar jananetri tatha Pashchimbanger mananiya mukhyamantri Mamata Bandyopadhyayer janmadine tar jonyo roilo anek shubhokaamona. Didi maney sangram, didi mane sadharon manusher jonyo larhai, didi maney parajito hoyeo abaar phire aasa. Didi’r chhatrachhayay surakshito aamraa sabai (Happy birthday, Didi. Lots of best wished for the mass-leader and chief minister of Bengal. Didi means struggle, Didi means fighting for the common people, Didi means rising like the phoenix after defeat. Under Didi’s tender care we are all protected,” the tweet said.
Mamata’s long-standing colleague Madan Mitra, the Kamarhati legislator whose arrest by the CBI along with some colleagues had forced her to storm the CBI office at Nizam Palace soon after the poll results, sent out his wishes in both English and Bengali, along with images of himself and the chief minister.
The state Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar whose ties with the chief minister remain testy, too, wished her.
“Warm greetings and best wishes to Hon’ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her birthday. May you be blessed with good health and long life and continue to serve societal causes,” tweeted Governor Dhankhar.
Among those who have wished Mamata apart from the scores of party supporters are Pawar (whose lone MLA in Goa joined the Trinamul recently), Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Hindi film actor Riteish Deshmukh, Mamata’s colleagues in Trinamul and members of the Bengali film fraternity Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty and June Maliah, actor Jeet, former Congress MLA Nepal Mahato.
