New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who sees herself as a potential prime minister after the elections, on Friday alleged there was a conspiracy to kill her and said in the event of her death she would be reborn again “among the people”.

Ms Banerjee was referring to a fire in her hotel room in Malda, which she said was not the result of any electrical short-circuit.

“These people do not want the good of Bengal. After killing me it would be passed on as a short-circuit… as an accidental death. Planning is on,” Ms. Banerjee told an election meeting in Birbhum district. She returned to campaigning one day after being taken ill following the fire on Thursday.

“But know it that the more you to try to character-assassinate me and kill me I will be born again among the people,” she said without identifying the conspiring forces. “You cannot stop me from working for the people,” she said.

Earlier, before leaving Malda by helicopter Ms Banerjee told reporters that she was administered oxygen and saline last night after she felt suffocation on account of exposure to smoke.

“But now it is the election time. So I cannot cancel (the programme). I am compelled to carry on the campaign,” she said.

Asked whether doctors had advised rest, Ms. Banerjee said: “They have said (so), but do I listen?”

Narrating the sequence of events, Ms. Banerjee said she heard a loud sound when she was in the washroom. The room was engulfed in smoke and there was no visibility. She called out to her aide Joydeep who wrapped her in a blanket before escorting her out of the room, she said.

The chief minister said that the fire brigade officials had told her that it was a deadly gas and one could die by inhaling it.