West Bengal: CM Mamata Banerjee files nomination from Nandigram

Her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari who has been fielded against her by the BJP has already mounted an attack on Banerjee saying that she is an outsider in Nandigram

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination from Nandigram in East Midnapore district on Wednesday afternoon even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) upped its ante trying to brand the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief as an “outsider” in Nandigram.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee waves to supporters as she arrives to address a public meeting in Nandigram on Tuesday. (ANI)

Banerjee, after leading a road show in Nandigram and offering puja at a Shiva temple, went to Haldia on a chopper. She filed her nomination at the SDO’s office in Haldia in East Midnapore.

Her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari who has been fielded against her by the BJP has already mounted an attack on Banerjee saying that she is an outsider in Nandigram.

Both the BJP and the TMC have come up with posters in and round Nandigram. While the BJP’s posters say that Nandigram wants its own Bhoomiputra Suvendu Adhikari, TMC’s posters with cutouts of Mamata Banerjee say that Bengal wants its own daughter.

On Tuesday, however, Banerjee hit back saying: “Some people are saying that I am an outsider. How can I be an outsider when I am from Bengal? And people coming from Delhi are not outsiders? Goons coming from Rajasthan are not outsiders? If I am an outsider I shouldn’t have been the chief minister.”

The TMC had a few weeks ago launched its main poll campaign slogan “Bangla Nijer Meyeke Chaye” (Bengal wants its own daughter). On Tuesday, the chief minister sharpened her poll campaign saying that she was the daughter of 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, TMC lost in the booth in Kolkata where she hails from. She has fled from her existing constituency,” Adhikari had said while speaking to reporters at a road rally in Nandigram, his home turf.