Kolkata: The BJP Saturday announced Suvendu Adhikari as its Nandigram candidate, pitting the protégé against his once mentor, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP announcement has given an official stamp to what was increasingly an open secret — that the two would battle it out in arguably the marquee poll fight in West Bengal.
Adhikari, who joined BJP in December, had challenged Mamata to contest from Nandigram, one that the chief minister accepted almost immediately.
As if the clash of two forceful personalities wasn’t enough of a poll script, the stage, Nandigram, the rural constituency around 150 km from Kolkata, only adds another intriguing dimension.
Nandigram is synonymous with the land agitation that catapulted Mamata to power but Adhikari was her trusted lieutenant and the mass mobiliser behind the protests.
Political experts now say the electoral battle will be nothing short of a “war for political existence”.
“For Mamata Banerjee, who has a fiery 40-year-long career in politics, the election is to prove her credentials as the actual claimant to the Nandigram movement and to establish that the Mamata magic is yet to fade,” said Prof Samir Das, a veteran political analyst. “For Suvendu, who is in his 25th year of his political journey, it is almost a do or die situation. If he does not win, he may lose his relevance, not just in the BJP, but in politics.”
Having anticipated a tough fight, the Trinamool has already begun preparations. The party’s Nandigram block president, Swadesh Das, told ThePrint that the chief minister has taken four houses on rent at four corners of the constituency to have absolute control.
“Didi will stay here until she ensures victory. Do not think that she has taken the challenge lightly,” Das said over the phone.
“It is her own battle now, not merely a prestige fight.”
He added that Mamata will be in Nandigram on 10 March to file her nomination.
Subrata Mukherjee, cabinet minister and the TMC electoral charge of Nandigram, is confident that the chief minister will win. “Mamata has an edge there. It is her ground, she knows every corner of the area,” he said. “None can defeat her there.”
Nandigram votes in the second phase on 1 April. Results are to be declared on 2 May.
Mamata Banerjee Friday announced the Trinamool candidate list for 291 seats out of the total 294 constituencies. “I will contest from Nandigram, my party colleague Sovandeb Chattopadhyay will be fighting from Bhawanipore seat,” she declared.
Mamata is leaving her south Kolkata seat after almost a decade.
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Nandigram’s very own
Adhikari was born and brought up at Nandigram, which during the agitation in 2007 was as nondescript as a small fishermen’s village near a bay can be.
While his family is seen as the most influential in East Midnapore district, his reputation rose during the Nandigram land movement, which was born out of an alleged forced land acquisition and deaths and disappearances of over a dozen villagers.
Adhikari’s family is now terming it a battle between the Bhumi-putra (son of the soil) and a city politician.
Sisir Adhikari, Suvendu’s father and former TMC MP who is also a former Union minister, said, “I did not quit Trinamool despite my son joining BJP. I was loyal. But senior leaders of my party started running a slander campaign against me. It was worse than my political opponents CPM did.”
He added: “How many times has anyone seen Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram since 2011? But we have been here with the people; we did not migrate to luxury houses. Mamata is fighting with the bhumi-putra here.”
The battle is already causing fissures in the Trinamool stronghold. A senior Trinamool leader, requesting anonymity, said the BJP does not have a presence here but added that old Trinamool loyalists are now being forced to pledge allegiance to either side.
“It is unfortunate that the leaders are dividing and breaking Trinamool here to strengthen their own camps,” he said. “The cadre are being ordered or intimidated to join either camp. What can be worse for a worker? We are a divided house. BJP does not have any presence here.”
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‘A well-thought out move’
Analysts claim that Mamata Banerjee’s decision to choose Nandigram as her constituency is a well-thought out decision.
The chief minister had given indications that she may contest from two constituencies — Nandigram and Bhawanipore — but has now stuck to just one.
“She will contest from a single constituency and not from both — Nandigram and Bhawanipore. Why Nandigram and why not South Kolkata? And why not Singur, another epicentre of Mamata’s land movement? Nandigram is a place through which she will either destroy Suvendu or bring a culmination to her own political career,” said political analyst and researcher Biswanath Chakraborti.
“Trinamool’s internal assessment shows that the party is not in a good shape in Bhawanipore, which has majority non-Bengali voters. That is because of Mamata’s statements calling non-Bengali as outsiders. Singur, she cannot choose, as her party trailed by over 10,000 votes there in 2019. And more importantly, she was dared by Suvendu to contest from Nandigram. As the supreme leader of the party, she could not ignore the challenge.”
A factor that works in Mamata’s favour is that Muslims constitute nearly 28 per cent of the Nadigram’s electorate.
Chakraborti said Muslims will consolidate in favour of Mamata. “She will get full support of Muslims in the area and the demographic composition made Mamata accept the challenge,” he added.
Adhikari, however, is no pushover.
The constituency has 17 gram panchayats with 241 panchayat members, all controlled by the Trinamool Congress since 2018. Ashikari is believed to be the architect of making Nandigram opposition-free at all levels, starting from the three-tier panchayat system.
He is also the sitting MLA, and had garnered 67.2 per cent of the vote share.
To queer the pitch for the chief minister, the Indian Secular Front (ISF), led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui, may field a candidate here.
“The candidate lists are not yet out for the alliance but we are keen to contest from Nandigram,” Naushad Siddiqui, the ISF president, told ThePrint. “By all probability, we will be given the seat. We have a good support base there among Muslims and Dalits.”
Prof Abdul Matin, another political analyst, said if the ISF does join the poll fray, it may dent the CM’s prospects. “If the ISF joins the poll fray in Nandigram, we can’t say whether there would be an absolute consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of Mamata,” he said. “If ISF manages to draw even as minimum as one to two per cent of the Muslim votes, it may damage Mamata’s prospects.”
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If HINDUS have to survive culturally and practice their religion without fear of RIOTERS and PROSELYTIZERS they must decide who to vote for in a consolidated way.
Because let’s understand HINDUS believe in education and science and prosperity hence are peaceful and as they don’t believe in conversion and violence to achieve conversion they are also considered weak .
The picture on the left depicts a frutrated woman selling halfbaked deams and fantasies she has no qualification to achieve.
Nandigram battle is not that important to BJP to win, but it will decide who will be major opponent of BJP after election.
Congress & CPI(M) should hope for BJP victory. If that happens TMC members will leave lock, stock, and barrel for Congress or CPI(M), but mostly Congress and Mamata will be history, while Congress & CPI(M) will be back in the game.