E-Paper
Suvendu Adhikari to fight Didi in Nandigram
Out of the 57 seats, one seat, Bagmundi in Purulia district, was left for the All Jharkhand Students Union, a BJP ally.
A day after West Bengal chief minister Manata Banerjee said she would contest from Nandigram, the constituency, home-turf, and stronghold of her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari, who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party in December, the latter accepted the challenge, setting the stage for perhaps the most important political battle the state has seen in recent years.
On Saturday, the BJP named Adhikari as its candidate from Nandigram, in East Midnapore, where elections are scheduled on April 1. The party released the names of 57 candidates for the first two phases of the crucial assembly polls in the poll bound state. Out of the 57 seats, one seat, Bagmundi in Purulia district, was left for the All Jharkhand Students Union, a BJP ally. On Friday, Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress released the names of 291 candidates for all the eight phases.
“BJP’s central election committee met on March 4. It was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP’s National president JP Nadda among other senior leaders and approved the names for the first and second phase. Adhikari would be contesting from Nandigram,” said Arun Singh, BJP’s national general secretary while releasing the party’s candidate list.
Adhikari, a former TMC heavyweight and an ex-minister of the Mamata Banerjee government, joined the BJP in December 2020. Even before the announcement was made from the BJP’s headquarters in Delhi on Saturday, Adhikari, who has already vowed to defeat Banerjee by 50,000 votes, sharpened his attack further and labelled his former leader as an “outsider” in Nandigram.
“The TMC candidate in Nandigram is an outsider. She comes to seek votes every five years. The people will reject her. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC lost in the booth in Kolkata where she hails from. She has fled from her existing constituency,” Adhikari said while speaking to reporters during a rally in Nandigram,
Nandigram, located around 100 km south of Kolkata, is one of most prestigious assembly constituencies for the TMC because it was the mass movement against land acquisition here during 2006-08 — these were led by Adhikari — paved the path for Banerjee’s political resurrection and propelled her to power in 2011, defeating the CPI(M), which ruled the state for 34 years. Now, the BJP, once considered a minnow in the state, hopes to do the same with the TMC. It won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019.
Posters, banners and wall graffiti already started coming up in Adhikari’s support in the constituency before his name was announced.
BJP leaders said that it was Adhikari who requested them to field him from Nandigram.
Meanwhile, the ruling TMC has started a house hunt for chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram. The TMC hit back at Adhikari saying that Mamata has taken up the challenge and has shown the courage to fight from one seat and that Adhikari will be trounced. “Adhikari is irresponsible, arrogant and ungrateful. Earlier, he alleged that Mamata was afraid and planning to contest from two seats. Mamata however showed the courage to contest from one seat. She has taken up the challenge. Adhikari will be trounced by a big margin,” said Saugata Roy, TMC MP. The Nandigram assembly constituency falls under Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency which was won by Adhikari’s brother Dibyendu Adhikari on a TMC ticket. Adhikari’s father Sisir Adhikari is also a TMC MP. While Adhikari and one of his brothers Soumendu Adhikari have joined the BJP, his father is keeping a low profile, although he has aired his grievances with the TMC. A political analyst termed the contest “do or die”. “ If Banerjee wins there won’t be anyone to challenge her in the near future. If Adhikari wins he will become a giant killer and his position in the BJP will be elevated. The loser, on the other hand may get obliterated,” said Biswanath Chakraborty, a professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University. Among the other candidates fielded by the BJP are cricketer-turned politician Ashok Dinda from Moyna and former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh from Debra. The TMC too has fielded a former IPS officer Humayun Kabir from Debra. The BJP hasn’t fielded any candidate for Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore district which goes to poll on April 1 in the second phase.
