East Midnapore district’s Nandigram - where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee unsuccessfully contested against her protégé-turned-bete noire Suvendu Adhikari in 2021 – is in the crosshairs of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls.
“Of Bengal’s 294 seats, Nandigram emerged as head turner because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) somehow managed to secure 1956 votes more than Didi (Banerjee). Our 70-year-old leader never lost an election. TMC secured 213 seats in the 2021 polls and
East Midnapore district’s Nandigram - where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee unsuccessfully contested against her protégé-turned-bete noire Suvendu Adhikari in 2021 – is in the crosshairs of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls.
“Of Bengal’s 294 seats, Nandigram emerged as head turner because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) somehow managed to secure 1956 votes more than Didi (Banerjee). Our 70-year-old leader never lost an election. TMC secured 213 seats in the 2021 polls and secured some more in subsequent bypolls but Nandigram continues to cast a shadow on our victory,” a senior TMC state leader, requesting anonymity, said.
“Our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is personally overseeing the preparations at Nandigram. The record will be reversed in 2026,” he added.
On August 19, Abhishek held a closed-door meeting with a group of leaders from East Midnapore at his Kolkata office and told them that his focus will be on Nandigram, TMC leaders said. He held at least two more meetings on the seat. Following the meetings, I-Pac, the company TMC hired in 2019 to help it formulate poll strategies with data collected from the field, was asked to launch an intensive survey. “I-Pac executives are visiting Nandigram to get feedback from voters. TMC teams are also visiting these spots and sending reports to Abhishek Banerjee,” a TMC leader said.
After her defeat, Mamata contested and won Kolkata’s Bhawanipore assembly seat, where she lives, in a bypoll to continue as chief minister.
Suvendu Adhikari, who was made leader of the opposition in the Bengal legislative assembly by BJP after his Nandigram performance, apparently got a wind of the TMC’s activities on his turf that he first won for the ruling party in 2016.
“Mamata Banerjee contested from Nandigram. I defeated her there. Let her contest from Bhawanipore. We will field a BJP candidate who will defeat her here as well. I give my word,” Adhikari said on September 4.
Adhikari’s words have triggered speculations in some circles that the chief minister, who swore to take her revenge during her 2024 Lok Sabha poll campaigns in East Midnapore, might contest the Nandigram seat again.
A senior state TMC office bearer told HT that the chief minister is yet to share her plans, which, he indicated, are often intuitive. “The way she makes instant decisions, we won’t be surprised if she decides to contest from Nandigram. But so far, she hasn’t said anything,” the TMC leader said.
“Mamata Banerjee is in a position to contest from any seat and win. She may contest from two seats. For Adhikari, however, there is no seat other than Nandigram where he stands a 50% chance of winning. He said those words to play safe. He knows that we are making elaborate preparations for Nandigram,” the TMC leader added.
The 2021 contest was marked by high drama even before the election schedule was announced.
Making a move that political observers saw as a masterstroke, Mamata, while addressing a rally in Nandigram on January 19, 2021 announced that she would contest from there against Adhikari who resigned from the seat and joined BJP in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah on December 19, 2020.
The CM took on the BJP from a wheelchair because of a foot injury she suffered in Nandigram on March 10, hours after filing her nomination papers. She alleged that some people intentionally closed the door of her SUV while she was standing on the footboard. The ECI dismissed the allegation but transferred several police officers entrusted with her security.
With around 27% of the 2,57,299 Nandigram voters being Muslims in 2021, religion was seen by Adhikari as the deciding factor. The assembly segment’s total population was 3,56,382. He repeatedly referred to the CM as “begum” during his campaigns and accused her of appeasing Muslims.
Nandigram went to the polls on April 1. Banerjee brought charges of rigging against BJP while polling was on. She visited a booth and stayed there for around two hours. TMC challenged the Nandigram verdict and demanded recounting but the petition was not accepted by the ECI.
Banerjee moved the Calcutta high court in June 2021, challenging the counting procedure. During a hearing on June 24, 2021, Mamata’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi appealed to justice Kausik Chanda, before whom the matter was listed, to recuse from hearing as he represented BJP in several cases as a lawyer in the past. To drive home the point, TMC circulated a photograph of Justice Chanda and the then Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh at a BJP programme.
On July 7, 2021, justice Chanda imposed a cost of ₹5 lakh on the chief minister while recusing himself from the case. The court said that the cost was imposed for “vilification adopted to seek recusal.” Banerjee challenged this order and the case is still pending.
State BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar claimed that the reality on the ground has changed drastically across the state since 2021. Sarkar said: “I-Pac and TMC are no longer fighting against BJP. They are now fighting the people of Bengal. The binary has changed. BJP is with the people. And, people have stood up against TMC to get out of a complete anarchy that Bengal didn’t witness even in the 60’s or the 70’s.”
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