Kolkata, April 4 (AHN) A suspicious drone was spotted near the helicopter of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Malatipur in Malda district on Saturday, while the CM was there to address a campaign rally ahead of the crucial two-phase Assembly polls in the state later this month.

The Chief Minister herself spotted the drone while she was getting into the chopper after finishing her address at Malatipur. She immediately directed the police officers present at the spot to investigate the source of the drone.

“The police need to keep an eye on such things. Those who did it need to be identified,” the West Bengal Chief Minister was heard saying.

Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to take part in three public meetings in Malda on Saturday.

After the first meeting in Manikchak, she held the second meeting in Malatipur.

After the meeting there, the Chief Minister was leaving for her next destination, Gazole. At that moment, a drone was seen flying in front of the helipad where Mamata Banerjee's chopper was parked.

Seeing this, she asked the police to keep an eye on the matter.

The Congress candidate from Malatipur this time is former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Mausam Benazir Noor, who had recently quit the Trinamool Congress and returned to the Congress.

Before joining the Trinamool Congress just before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she was a Congress Lok Sabha member twice from the Malda (Uttar) constituency in the same district.

In 2019, she contested from Malda (Uttar) as a Trinamool Congress candidate and was defeated.

Addressing the campaign rally at Malatipur, the Chief Minister indirectly described Noor as a traitor, without naming her, and said that she could not honour the faith of the party that sent her to the Upper House of Parliament.

“The common people of Malda will never forgive the deserters. After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, since there was no representative from Malda in the Lok Sabha, we sent the representative of this district to the Rajya Sabha. She herself was defeated in Malda in 2019. She was there for a long time. She joined another party just before the elections this time... I have no objection to that. But people will not forgive such deserters. She could not become an MP by contesting the elections. She won with the votes of the MLAs. She also got my vote. I myself could not go to the Rajya Sabha in my life. Despite getting so many opportunities, she chose this time to oppose the party,” the Chief Minister said.