Nandigram: Nandigram, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking on her former protege and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, has emerged as the epicentre of the 2021 assembly elections. With high-octane campaigns being waged in Nandigram by both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, jibes — often communal in nature — are flying fast and thick.
While Adhikari has addressed Banerjee as “begum” and frequently referred to Pakistan to attack her, the latter seeks to remind voters of the Gujarat and northeast Delhi riots. She invokes the names of “Duryodhan and Dushasan” to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, without taking their names, and also employs terms such as “doitya (demon)” and “dangabaaj (rioters)”.
BJP leaders, including Adhikari, initially targeted Banerjee over “tolabaji (extortion)”, chit fund scams and “cut money”, but they now admit these are “secondary” issues as Nandigram “needs to be saved from jihadis” first.
“The campaign was built on Trinamool’s corruption as the villagers suffered the worst. But, ‘cut money’, loot of (cyclone) Amphan relief (fund) are not issues anymore. These are secondary things. Nandigram needs to be saved from jihadis. It is the hawa (perception) now,” said a senior BJP leader, who didn’t want to be named.
In turn, members of the Trinamool Congress accuse the BJP of polarising the election and instilling fear among local residents.
The population of Nandigram, one of 16 assembly constituencies in East Midnapore, is 34 per cent Muslim. The figure is below 20 per cent in the remaining constituencies.
Deep inside the coastal hamlets in Nandigram, the villagers voice fears and apprehensions about violence in the run-up to the elections.
“A few days ago, they (anti-social elements) hurled bombs near our houses. They want to intimidate us all the time. We feel insecure,” said Nayani Chitti of Brindanpur village.
According to the 2019 election result data, Nandigram is one of the top five assembly segments in the state where Trinamool led by over 68,000 votes.
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Many Muslim land agitation leaders with TMC
Nandigram, which votes on 1 April, is the site of the 2007 land acquisition protest that helped propel Banerjee to office four years later.
In this key seat, the BJP has not only targeted Banerjee over her support among Muslims, but also over the fact that several Muslim leaders who were part of the land movement joined the TMC later.
In 2007, several leaders of the land agitation movement formed an organisation, Bhumi Uchched Protirodh Committee (BUPC), to fight against the erstwhile Left Front government’s acquisition of land for industrialisation.
The forum had 14 members at the time. They included Meghnad Pal, Sheikh Sufiyan, Swadesh Das, Khokon Shith and Abu Taher — all residents of Nandigram.
Apart from Pal, most leaders — many of them Muslims — are with the TMC now.
Sufiyan is the CM’s election agent, while Das is one of her four proposers. Pal is Adhikari’s election agent.
During a rally earlier this month, Adhikari attacked Banerjee, saying the names of leaders working with her “speak volumes” about her “secular credentials”.
TMC members say ‘brainwashed Hindus’ craving ‘poriborton’
Banerjee has shifted her entire core team to Nandigram to oversee the poll preparations.
TMC national general secretary Subrata Bakshi, former minister Purnendu Bose, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen and Sukhendu Shekhar Roy are camping at Sufiyan’s house, which has been turned into Banerjee’s election office to oversee the election arrangements.
Apart from battling BJP’s taunts, the TMC here also claims to be dealing with another issue — “brainwashed” Hindus craving “poriborton (change)”.
“BJP has branded us Pakistanis and jihadis. We have been living here for ages, when did we become Pakistani? We do not even speak Hindi. Some of the villagers now tell us that they want poriborton. They say they will be tortured if the Trinamool comes to power. This is the extent of brainwash,” said Rabiul Islam, a local TMC leader.
“At least five-six teams of some Hindu sabhas are going to every household and telling the villagers to end the jihadi rule. Who is a jihadi? They are instilling fear among the villagers,” said Sheikh Abdul, another party leader.
Speaking to ThePrint, Purnendu Bose said, “It is true that they are trying to communalise the situation, but we have faith in people. We have also strategised how to respond to the BJP’s aggression.”
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BJP establishes base in Nandigram
The BJP has been successful in creating its cadre in Nandigram, with many CPM members, who allege being “tortured” by TMC workers, joining the party in the last two years.
The BJP, which had trailed Mamata’s party by 68,000 votes in Nandigram in the 2019 general elections, now claims to have at least 60 per cent of the Trinamool cadres and all erstwhile CPM members working for them.
“We had prepared the ground for the change here. The CPM cadres, who were tortured by Trinamool Congress after 2011, joined us before the 2018 panchayat elections. After Suvendu Adhikari jumped ship, there had been an exodus from Trinamool. Now, CPM, Trinamool and old BJP members all are working together to bring a saffron change,” Nabarun Nayak, chief of the BJP in the East Midnapore district, told The Print.
Nayak, who has been with the party for 23 years and is a member of the RSS, said initially they faced issues adjusting with TMC members who joined the BJP.
“CPM is a cadre-based party like us. We may believe in different ideologies, but the regimentation and command structure is the same. Trinamool was not built over any ideology, rather it is a product of the Communist-hatao movement. Currently, we are all together with a common aim,” he added.
He claimed the party has got a list of poll agents for 3,210 booths across the district. “We have four agents per booth, none will drop out this time,” Nayak added.
The TMC, however, denied the BJP’s claims of Trinamool cadres joining them.
“Some greedy and unscrupulous people like Suvendu joined the BJP. But we have our cadre base intact. Of the 357 members across 17 panchayats in Nandigram, only 17 members have joined Suvendu. So where is his support?” Trinamool general secretary Subrata Bakshi told ThePrint.
“He is trying to mislead and confuse people with his communal agenda. Why does he need to wear tilak on his forehead now? He never did it earlier,” he added.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, however, said the Trinamool is “nervous and that is why they are levelling allegations of polarisation against us”.
“… They should introspect on what they have done to push away a particular community from them. And it is not about religion, the villagers are disillusioned with her (Mamata) due to the relentless corruption,” he said.
Nandigram residents angry with TMC
Ghosh’s claims were echoed in local residents’ grievances.
Mahadeb Bhar, who runs a small tea stall on Tekhali bridge — the site where some villagers were shot dead in police firing in 2007 — said, “We all were with Trinamool in Nandigram. I did not join BJP, but I do not even want to be a part of Trinamool.”
“They looted our Amphan relief fund. I spent Rs 30,000 to rebuild my house, it was completely destroyed. We did not get any money. This is the primary reason why Trinamool cadres joined the BJP now.”
Nayani Chitti of Brindanpur village broke down while describing how she had to fend for her family after she lost everything during Amphan, which devastated parts of the state last May.
“I begged. We had nothing. We do not even get Amphan money or the money for our 100 days of work (under MGNREGA). Doesn’t Didi know this? She blames Adhikari babu. But what about other villages? Whom does she blame there?”
Sumitra Gayen Mondal of Sonachura village said her family got just Rs 1,000 of the Rs 6,000 promised under the state government’s Krishak Bandhu scheme.
(Edited by Debalina Dey)
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Secular TMC/congress is just like secular Kashmir, Kerala.. and indeed Pakistan & Bangladesh!!
The bombing by Jihadis & cut money is secular too for Jihadi-TMC/liberal gang!!
Killing of Hindus in Kerala, Bengal, Kashmir.. should continue in other parts of India as well!! 80 million+ Hindu slaughter & genocide by Islam in history should be
the Hindu template!!
Hindus should promote Congress/TMC Quranic-Islamic liberalism & secularism to allow themselves to be butchered more aggressively just as in Pakistan/Bangladesh where Hindu population has been decimated!!
Long and short of it is that people of this constituency are caught between the Devil and the Deep Sea. TMC leaders seem to have worked for themselves during the last one decade of rule.