Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the Nandigram bypoll in West Bengal, was arrested by the police on Friday in connection with a 2007 case hours after former Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee declared that her party would back Pradhan in the October 6 bypoll.
Banerjee’s announcement came on Friday afternoon after her party’s candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew her nomination,leaving her party without a contender in a constituency that has voted chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in the last four elections. Nandigram was one of the two seats that Adhikari won in the April 2026 elections; the bypoll is necessitated because he retained Bhabanipur.
Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate, was arrested in a murder case registered in 2007 in the Nandigram police station, a police officer said, but did not explain why the police chose to act now.
According to the affidavit submitted by Pradhan along with his nomination papers, he was named in at least six murder cases in Nandigram police station in 2007.
Subhankar Sarkar, West Bengal Congress president, said Pradhan had expressed apprehension about his safety.
{{/usCountry}}Subhankar Sarkar, West Bengal Congress president, said Pradhan had expressed apprehension about his safety.
{{/usCountry}}“He wasn’t taking my calls. He earlier told me that he could be abducted. I was trying to make some alternative arrangements. But meanwhile, I learned that he has been arrested along with a few other people. I am yet to receive the full information,” said Sarkar.
“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. Do they not want a multi-party democracy? This aggressive attitude isn’t good for democracy,” the state Congress leader said.
The manoeuvring came a day after the Election Commission of India restrained the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and the rebel group led by Arup Roy from using the party’s name or its "flower and grass" election symbol. On Friday, the Banerjee-led faction was temporarily allowed the name “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and the football symbol for the October 6 bypolls.
News that a teacher, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew from the fray just before the deadline came soon after. Banerjee said she did not blame Dey.
“She was threatened that her children would be kidnapped. What can she do? I have no grudges,” Banerjee said, declaring her party’s support for the Congress candidate.
She also spoke about the phone call that she had received from Congress leader and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to express solidarity with her party after the Election Commission ruling. Banerjee’s remarks were a shift in her approach, as the TMC, during its 15 years in power, had maintained it could take on the BJP on its own in Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress that she founded has been under intense pressure after it lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party in April this year.
The BJP won 207 of 294 seats and the TMC, only 80.
But after the elections, 57 TMC legislators backed Ritabrata Banerjee, who was recognised as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly by speaker Rathindra Nath Bose. TMC leaders in parliament also switched sides.
Twenty rebel TMC parliamentarians have also merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India and backed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Twenty rebel TMC Lok Sabha MPs have also claimed to have merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India and backed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
In the Rajya Sabha, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were reelected to the upper House on July 24. A fourth TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha.