It was a joint rally by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in support of Sudip Bandyopadhyay, a member of the last Lok Sabha and the Trinamool Congress candidate from the Calcutta North-West seat. He is pitted against Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the Congress and Rajdeo Goala of CPI(M).

Banerjee said, "the new millennium will be the millennium of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and CPI(M) will fade away with the current century."

With many parts of Calcutta still under water following the torrential rains on Friday, Banerjee said: "If Calcutta can come to a standstill due to rains imagine what is happening in the rest of the state, especially the villages."

Speaking about the Bengalpackage she had proposed to the Vajpayee government, Banerjee said, "the new trains, the expansion of the Calcutta metro, stopping the closure of six public sector undertakings in the state are our achievements. This time we will be in the government and will work for the development of the state from the Centre," she said.

She even invoked goddess Durga to help her in fight against the "evil called CPI(M)," reciting a Sanskrit shloka, much to the delight of the crowd.

On the Congress and the other parties she said, "we have a strange scenario where every one wants to be the Prime Minister. Mulayam Singh, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Jyoti Basu every one is fancying his chances. I wonder what kind of a PM we will have if they come to power."

Taking a swipe at the Congress candidate Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Banerjee said, "I take politics as a 24-hour job, not as a hobby. I am in politics all through the day and stay with the people through thick and thin."