West Bengal elections: Nandigram turns new epicentre as BJP fields Suvendu Adhikari against Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Election 2021: Nandigram is all set for one of the keenly contested political battles with Mamata Banerjee taking on her former aide and now BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari.

West Bengal elections: Putting an end to all speculation, the Bharatiya Janata Party today made it official that it will field Suvendu Adhikari against his former mentor and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. Adhikari, who joined the saffron party late last year, had earlier challenged the Trinamool Congress supremo to face him in Nandigram, which falls under the Purba Medinipur district. Earlier a fortress of Congress and then Left, the region has been sending a TMC representative to the assembly since 2009. A day earlier, Mamata had announced that she will be contesting from Nandigram and not her traditional seat of Bhowanipore.

The region came into the limelight following a decision of the then ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) to build a special economic zone (SEZ) in the area. The move led to protest by villagers in which 14 unarmed villagers were killed in 2009. This resulted in the Nandigram movement led by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. The constituency became the epicentre of the anti-land acquisition movements alongside Singur against the Left government and ignited a popular upsurge that saw Mamata Banerjee rising all the way to the post of CM of the state, ending the 34-year old rule by Left parties.

Come 2021 and the region is again set to witness one of the most keenly contested political battles with Mamata Banerjee taking on her former aide and now BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari. Notably, Adhikari had won from the Nandigram seat in 2016. After resigning from the MLA post and the TMC, Adhikari had challenged Banerjee to contest from the seat, vowing to defeat her. While announcing the TMC candidate list yesterday, Banerjee formally accepted the challenge by shifting to Nandigram, leaving her traditional constituency of Bhowanipore in Kolkata to party colleague Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.

Mamata Banerjee has said that she will visit Nandigram on 9th March. She will be filing her nomination from the constituency on 10th March at Haldia. Adhikari had welcomed the CM’s decision to contest from the Nandigram saying that she will lose and leave on May 2. The results for the eight-phase assembly elections in West Bengal will be declared on May 2.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also set to address a rally from Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata tomorrow.