Another snipe at Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee says she not a seasonal flower

After her 'cuckoo' remarks, Trinamool Congress chief and Union railways minister Mamata Banerjee says she is not a "seasonal flower" in another apparent snipe at Rahul Gandhi.

Mamata also said she does not do politics from a "bed of gold".

"Amra dumurer phool noi (We are not a seasonal flower rarely seen) that we will appear like cuckoos before elections, chirp and fly away," Mamata said yesterday without making any reference to the young AICC general secretary but comments seen as directed at his two recent visits to West Bengal.

"The road I travel is at my finger tips. I know its characteristics. Throughout the year I am with the people. I know their problems and they know me. I understand their language," she said.

Pointing to her spartan life style, she said "I wear hawai chappals because I like wearing them and not because someone says so," she said while addressing a party rally at Nanoor in Birbhum district where 11 partymen were killed allegedly by CPI(M) men a decade ago.

"We do not do politics from a bed of gold. We do politics standing on the ground round the year. We hold rallies with the people in the summer heat and the monsoon rain," she said.

Taking umbrage at Mamata's remarks, WBPCC chief Manas Bhunia today told a party rally in Burdwan district that Rahul during his visit did not hurt anybody's self esteem and that she should not have used such language.

"If some people think that our leaders chirp like the cuckoo before elections and then disappear, they are wrong. I request such leaders not to use such language. Bengal knows the meaning of respect."

On Mamata's comment that she did not do politics from a bed of gold, Bhunia recounted the contributions of the Nehru-Gandhi family and said both Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru had worked for the country, while Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi had laid down their lives for it. "It is their blood that is running in Rahul Gandhi's veins."

The TC leader at a rally in North Bengal recently had said she was not a cuckoo which appears only in the spring. 

Gandhi  when asked for his response to the cuckoo remark at his press conference last week ignored the barb and replied "Do I look like a bird? I don't think Mamata Banerjee was referring to me."

Gandhi had also made it clear that his party favoured an alliance with Banerjee in next year's Assembly elections, but 'we are not going to bow our heads'.