Hitting out at the opposition and the Centre for creating "an emergency type situation" during the Assembly polls, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee today said she felt "ashamed" to witness the "most scandalous and malicious" poll campaign in the history of Bengal politics.
"The Central forces have created a havoc. In the name of conducting polls they have created an emergency like situation. They have stopped voters, heckled handicapped voters, misbehaved with candidates of our parties. We have never witnessed such a scenario in Bengal.
"We have also conducted Panchayat polls in 2013 and municipal elections but not a single person died during that period. But in last two months, about 12 of my party workers have been killed," she said in an interview to a Bengali news channel.
Banerjee said the central forces tried to intimidate the voters by asking them whether they were voting in favour of opposition CPI(M), BJP or ruling TMC.
Expressing confidence of returning to power for the second time, Banerjee said she can feel the "positive" pulse of the masses more than the leaders of opposition parties.
"I always stay with the masses throughout the year. I can feel their pulse and read their body language. They are with me. They are with TMC. The so-called alliance by Congress and CPI(M) is a desperate attempt by both the parties to save themselves from being irrelevant in the state politics," Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister said she felt ashamed as there has been so much scandalous and malicious campaign by the opposition political parties in the ongoing state Assembly polls.
"There has been so much of malicious and scandalous poll campaign by political parties that I feel ashamed. Never before in the history of Bengal there has been so much of malicious campaigning," Banerjee said.
Over 81 per cent electorate exercised their franchise in the polling for the fifth and penultimate phase of West Bengal Assembly election on April 30.
The last and the sixth phase of polling will be held on May 5.
