A day well spent at the Queen of Hills

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 11 April 2019 | Darjeeling: It was both work and play for Trinamool Congress Supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Queen of the Hills on Thursday. Darjeeling, which came into existence as a health sanatorium, provided her the much required respite from her hectic campaign schedule.

Banerjee has been on the campaign trail since April 3, covering the constituencies of North Bengal. She even managed to make a campaign trip to Dhubri, a border town in Assam. She has been addressing two rallies per day on an average, travelling from one venue to the other by helicopter and sometimes by road, despite occasional inclement weather.

An exhausted Banerjee arrived at Darjeeling on Wednesday evening. This time, as she is in the town for campaigning, she is not staying at the Richmond Hill Government Guest House and is putting up at The Retreat on Chowrasta instead. The hotel has been handpicked as the rooms offer unobstructed views of Mount Kanchenjunga, which is very close to her heart.

The day started on a clear note on Thursday, with the majestic Kanchenjunga in the backdrop. Banerjee made full use of the beautiful morning and went for her routine walk.

Walking down from Chowrasta to the District library, up Robertson Road and then back to the Mall through Nehru Road, she exchanged greetings and even asked the shopkeepers of roadside stalls as to how their business is faring. While crossing the Mall, she inquired about the progress of work on the ongoing facelift work of Chowrasta.

The election campaign rally also went well for the TMC supremo. The crowd was impressive and people cheered her attempts at addressing them in Nepali. "Tapai hery kosto cha?" (How are you) was her opening lines in Nepali as the mammoth crowd cheered her on. She even worked up the crowd asking questions on what the saffron brigade had done for the Hills, with the crowd answering "nothing" in unison.