Nonetheless, she praised India's evacuation exercises during last year's massive flooding in its Bihar state.
Two men have been held in Bihar state in connection with the incident.
But her opponents, sensing a recent shift away from voting by caste in neighbouring Bihar state, are hoping otherwise.
On Friday, the police made its first arrest, also in Bihar state.
Unusually cold weather is continuing to cause disruption to life across northern India, with more than 100 people feared dead in Bihar state alone.
Public health engineers also had to be convinced, but tests in Patna, a city in Bihar state, showed that the toilets were sanitary and efficient.
In the Bihar state assembly elections last year, the Congress candidate from Kesri's home town of Danapur won fewer than 1, 000 votes, losing his security deposit.
Last week, authorities in Bihar state ordered the closure of all government-run and private schools until 14 January - postponing the new school term by a week.
Already a huge amount of infrastructure is planned for Bihar, including roads and an international airport at Gaya, with the Bihar State government fully committed to the university project.
It had issued a decree sacking the Bihar state government for its failure to stem the slaughter of low-caste labourers by private armies of landowners, and imposed direct rule from Delhi.
Both Ms Banerjee and Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar state, model themselves as champions of federalism, but have had no "qualms in using central intervention powers to suit the interest of their respective parties", observes Mr Kailash.
Police arrested Pradip, who goes by one name, from India's eastern state of Bihar, late Sunday from the state's Darbhanga district, said Rajan Bhagat, a Delhi police spokesman.
The state of Bihar has been the worst hit, with 187 people killed.
Authorities in the Indian state of Bihar have imposed restrictions on the sale of a cough syrup after reports that it was being widely used as a recreational drug.
With state elections due in Bihar later this year and in West Bengal next, Congress's leaders badly want to encourage this trend.
Living in Bihar, India's poorest state, Shailendra says that farming is one of the only options available to help him eke out a living.
By making teachers accountable to local governments, Bihar, India's most unlettered state, roughly halved its truancy rate last year.
If both houses of the national Parliament ratify direct rule in Bihar, the government will dissolve the state assembly and hold new elections.
Though Mr Yadav's rule in Bihar is not directly at stake, state elections, due anyway by March 2000, could be moved forward were he to lose badly.
Last month Mr Gandhi led attempts to revive the local Congress party in Bihar, a dirt-poor but populous eastern state which has just held elections for its legislature.
Like most of their fellows across the city, they are migrants from Bihar, India's poorest and third-most populous state.
Bihar has shaken off its past and is now the least corrupt state in India and from a low base its economy is growing at more than 14%.
It is also bad politics: in the states of Bihar and Orissa, voters in this election proved they will reward state administrations that show an interest in improving their lot.
Most promising are the state initiatives, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's in backward Bihar.
Police say the arrested traders, who mostly come from Bihar, said that 25 to 30 elephants were annually taken out of the state on an average over the past 15 to 20 years.
The Bihar legislature in April passed a bill to turn 18 mineral-rich southern districts into the separate state of Jharkhand.
At the Bihar Industries Association (BIA) in Patna, businessmen complain about the lack of credit and electricity, in a state that consumes just 12% of the per person national average.
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