Assassins hired to kill me, says Didi

There are people who want me dead. They will go to any extent to achieve this as they cannot counter me politically. MAMATA BANERJEE, West Bengal chief minister

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee told a private Bengali television channel on Friday evening that some people have hatched a plan to assassinate her and that supari killers (professional assassins) have been hired for the job.

The chief minister also said that she has prepared a political will that mentions names of leaders who will take charge of her party, the Trinamool Congress, in her absence. This was the first time she made such a statement.

HT contacted some top officers of the state police but they refused to comment and also did not want to be quoted on this issue.

“The killers have even made a recce of my home at Kalighat. I came to know of this because I am part of the administration. The police asked me several times to shift to a safer location but I refused. I am not scared of dying. If I live behind security cover, I will start distancing myself from the people,” said Banerjee. She lives with her family at her ancestral home in south Kolkata. It is a single storey house located beside a narrow road not far from the famous Kalighat temple. The channel requested Banerjee to disclose names of conspirators but she refused. “I have never spoken about this to anyone. Neither my party leaders know of this nor does my family. I am disclosing this in public for the first time,” the chief minister said.

“There is a group of people who want me dead. They will go to any extent to achieve this because they cannot counter me politically. I will not say who they are but I have full knowledge of their activities,” said Banerjee.

“Nothing will happen to my party if I die. I have written down the names of those who will run the party in my absence. Everything is sorted,” she said.