Alleging that Trinamool Congressmen were involved in the construction of the collapsed flyover, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the structure was a symbol of the state of affairs in West Bengal.
"People died. Mamata ji said it was not a political issue. She said there should be no politics with it. She was right... But the flyover is a symbol," Gandhi said at an election rally here in Burdwan district, taking a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee.
He said people brought Banerjee to power in 2011, hoping she would work for them. "But no work was done in the flyover project for five years. It remained as it was. Who was carrying out the construction? Her partymen were doing it.
"The flyover collapses and people die. After all who suffers? It's not the Trinamool men. The ones I met in the hospital have suffered," Gandhi said, referring to his visit to the Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata earlier in the day when he talked to some of the injured and their relatives.
At least 26 people died and 16 persons (of the 67 rescued), are in hospital with some of them battling for life, following the collapse of the under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover in north Kolkata's market area Posta on Thursday.