Big announcement in Nandigram: Mamata Banerjee will herself contest from here

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that she herself will contest from the Nandigram seat for the coming Assembly elections. The seat was won by Suvendu Adhikary in 2016, from which he resigned recently in order to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a public meeting, Banerjee said: “What if I myself contest from here?” Following cheers from the crowd, she told party general secretary Subrata Bakshi (on the stage) to “remember” to keep her name while compiling the list of candidates. This was a mere formality though – a way of the party chief indicating that she was a mere candidate and she was requesting the party’s general secretary to let her contest from Nandigram.

Soon, Bakshi made the announcement in consent, and it was clear that the party had chosen the stage today for this purpose. “I promise to be here all around the year, except only during the elections as I have to fight in all 294 seats across the state,” she said. Banerjee added that she is promising a “good candidate” for her seat Bhawanipore, or she might contest from both seats.

This is a major political development, as Banerjee’s meeting in the bastion of the Adhikary family was being seen as a way of show of strength between the Adhikarys and the Trinamool Congress. The Adhikary family has top leaders in the state — Trinamool MP Sisir Adhikary and Dibyendu Adhikary – Suvendu Adhikary who recently joined the BJP, as well as Soumendu Adhikary, who was till recently, chairperson of Contai municipality.

Banerjee, without naming any of the Adhikarys, today said that many were leaving her party in order to protect the wealth that they had accumulated over the years, and the BJP was threatening to lock them up in jails if they didn’t join them.

Banerjee’s big announcement today being seen as a direct challenge to not just Suvendu Adhikary and his family, but a way of trying to prove that she is ready to fight head on those who are challenging her. She reminded how she had led the Nandigram movement from the front, and narrated the events involved.