Mamata Banerjee will be in Nandigram in Jan 2021: Subhendu Adhikary’s seat a key focus this election

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will soon be visiting Nandigram in East Midnapore. Banerjee has planned a visit to Nandigram in January 2021, a constituency that will be a key focus this Assembly election for several reasons.

The Bengal CM has already finalised her programme to visit Nandigram even before Subhendu Adhikary, the lawmaker elected from the constituency, formally joins the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a public meeting in West Midnapore on Saturday in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The 2007 Nandigram movement had led to a larger movement across the state that eventually led to the formation of the Trinamool Congress government in 2011. The movement formally took off on January 3, 2007, which was built on resisting land acquisition for industry by the Left Front government. Banerjee visited Nandigram several times around this time to lead a powerful movement that swept the state. The twin movements of Nandigram and Singur helped Banerjee win support from across the state that eventually ousted the Left Front government of 34 years from power. Not just that, Nandigram has played an important role in shaping Subhendu Adhikary as a leader of the people.

Ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls, Banerjee herself had announced that Subhendu Adhikary would contest the election from Nandigram. He won from this seat and eventually became a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet.

With another Assembly election just around the corner, things have changed a lot between the two. Now, Adhikary is all set to start a new path with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which hopes to gain ground in the state with the help of this leader. Adhikary too hopes to make his presence felt in the coming election, in which the BJP would depend on him to gain more support of the people.

Without Subhendu Adhikary around, Mamata Banerjee now hopes to go back to Nandigram and speak directly to the people there. And now that the decision has been made, Trinamool Congress leaders are looking forward to hearing what powerful message the party supremo has for them, which would also reflect the message Banerjee has for the rest of the state to fight an election in which she has been deserted by those she had once trusted and was close to.