Mamata's Nandigram bypoll pick opts out; Congress candidate held

Congress nominee Milan Pradhan was arrested hours later in a murder case linked to the anti-land acquisition agitation, with police citing a pending warrant.

On Thursday evening, Mamata Banerjee’s candidate for the upcoming bypoll in Nandigram in West Bengal, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, met chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference at Kalighat, in Kolkata on Friday. (Sudipta Banerjee)

At 3.30pm on Friday, Dey announced she had withdrawn her nomination for the seat that goes to the polls on October 6.

At 4.30pm, Banerjee announced her support for Congress candidate Milan Pradhan.

At 6.30pm, Pradhan was arrested by the West Bengal police in a two-decade-old murder case during the 2007 anti-land acquisition protests that had catapulted both Banerjee and Adhikari into power.

In the course of around 24 tumultuous hours, Nandigram — the high-profile seat that saw a fierce battle between Adhikari and Banerjee in 2021 and which the former retained in 2026 by 9,665 votes, before giving up in favour of Bhabanipur — became the focus of national politics.

Nandigram emerges as key test after Bengal’s political upheaval

The bypolls – in Nandigram and Rejinagar in Murshidabad – are important because they are the first major electoral test after Banerjee lost power in a drubbing earlier this summer, and later saw her party splintered in both the state assembly and Parliament.

September 16 was the last day for candidates to file nominations for the bypolls, and September 18 was the last day for candidates to withdraw nominations.

“Pradhan has been arrested in connection with a 2007 murder case. Pending warrants are executed before every election,” said a police officer familiar with the development.

At least six murder cases are pending against Pradhan, according to his election affidavit, with all of them registered by the Nandigram police station in 2007 following an agitation over farmland acquisition by the then Left Front government.

Candidate’s withdrawal follows meeting with Suvendu Adhikari

The drama began on Thursday evening when Dey, accompanied by her husband Satyajit, met Adhikari at the state secretariat Nabanna, and subsequently withdrew her nomination on Friday.

The development came hours after the Election Commission allotted the Mamata Banerjee-led faction the name “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and football player symbol for the October 6 bypolls.

The rival Arup Roy-led rebel faction was allotted the name “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and the envelope symbol.

Dey did not issue public comments on the withdrawal of her nomination. HT reached out to Dey for comments but did not receive a response.

State Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy described the move as a “stunt”.

The development brought back memories of May this year, when the TMC’s Falta candidate Jahangir Khan withdrew from the May 21 assembly repoll, weeks after the party lost power in the state. The BJP won the bypoll with a record margin.

Mamata turns to Congress after dropping Nandigram contest

Hours later, Banerjee said she will support the Congress candidate in the bypoll, marking a major departure from her previous strategy of largely staying away from any electoral arrangement with the Congress during her 15-year stint in power.

Banerjee said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called her on Thursday night after the Election Commission of India (ECI) froze the name and symbol of the TMC, a party she founded in 1998.

“The Congress candidate is good. This is for greater interest and future alliance. Let this message [of alliance] start from Bengal. I didn’t tell Rahul Gandhi. It was our decision. But he assured me that they [Congress] were ready to help us in all possible ways. I kept the decision [to support the Congress candidate] to myself,” she said.

Calling the Congress a “sister party”, Banerjee said the move was aimed at strengthening the INDIA bloc.

“We will support the Congress in Nandigram. We decided on it from the beginning. The Congress wasn’t aware of this. It is our party’s decision. It is a surprise,” Banerjee said.

Rejinagar decision kept open for now

She said she would announce her decision on whether to support the Congress candidate in Muslim-majority Rejinagar later. Her faction fielded Rabiul Alam Chowdhury from Rejinagar, a seat that was won by former TMC leader and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) leader Humayun Kabir in 2026.

Asked why Dey quit, Banerjee said, “She was threatened that her children would be kidnapped. What can she do? I have no grudges. I had decided from the initial stage that we would support the Congress candidate.”

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Banerjee was free to make the announcement but stressed that the Congress had not sought her support. “She is a political leader. She can say anything she wants. But the fact is she has fielded a candidate and now that her candidate has withdrawn, she is extending support to us. We have not asked for her support,” Chowdhury told PTI.

Milan Pradhan held in long-pending murder case

At 6.30pm, police arrested Congress candidate Pradhan in a 2007 murder case, saying they were executing a pending warrant against him. To be sure, the arrest does not disqualify Pradhan from contesting the poll but might curtail his campaigning schedule.

The state Congress questioned why no police action was taken against Pradhan earlier. “If there are so many cases pending against him, what were the police doing all these days? The police suddenly became active only after he filed his nomination to contest the election? It appears that they (BJP) won’t allow any political party to contest the elections,” Subhankar Sarkar, state Congress president said.

The BJP said that “Mamata knew that her candidate would lose from Nandigram”. “That’s why she withdrew her party’s candidate,” BJP MP Khagen Murmu said.

Rebel TMC camp attacks Mamata’s decision

The rebel TMC faction criticised Banerjee. “She was in the Congress, betrayed it, formed her own party and then forged an alliance with the BJP. Again, she aligned with the Congress and ditched it. She also allied with Congress in 2011 to come to power by defeating the Left. Since then, the TMC has only destroyed the Congress in Bengal,” rebel TMC camp leader Akruzzaman Ansari said.

“Now when she is in trouble after losing people’s vote, she has bowed to Congress’ feet,” he added.

For almost two decades now, the seat of Nandigram in western Bengal has always held tremendous political significance. In 2007, protests broke out in the area after the then Left Front-ruled state government permitted land acquisition for a chemical project. Mounting agitations led to clashes and the death of 14 villagers in police firing.

The killings catapulted the protests into the national consciousness and gave a political vehicle to Banerjee and her then lieutenant Adhikari, who was then a rising local politician and strongman. Along with Singur, Nandigram was held responsible for Banerjee ousting the Left Front regime after 34 years in 2011.

Banerjee and Adhikari faced off in 2021

The seat again hit the headlines in 2021 when Banerjee moved from her traditional seat of Bhabanipur to contest against Adhikari, who had defected to the BJP.

Banerjee lost the seat by 1,956 votes but her decision to challenge the then rising BJP from Adhikari’s turf galvanised her party and led to a landslide victory.

But fortunes reversed in 2026 when Adhikari defeated Banerjee from her pocket borough of Bhabanipur by 15,105 votes and also won Nandigram.

He eventually decided to retain the south Kolkata seat, necessitating the bypoll.