Suvendu Adhikari, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed his nomination for the Nandigram constituency on Friday. Adhikari, who quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in December last year, will face TMC head Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming assembly elections.
In 2016, Adhikari captured the Nandigram seat as a TMC candidate with over 67 percent of the vote, beating his closest rival from the CPI by 81,230 votes.
Adhikari filed his papers at the Haldia sub-divisional office after heading a kilometer-long roadshow with Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani.
The participation of union ministers at Adhikari’s nomination filing rally only goes to show how important the Nandigram seat is to the BJP. Banerjee has already filed her nomination there.
For Adhikari, the fight for Nandigram is a matter of political survival; he has pledged to beat Banerjee by a margin of 50,000 votes or leave politics.
He stated that if the BJP gains control, the state’s citizens would be able to take advantage of national government programmes. Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo, will be Adhikari’s opponent. Banerjee has abandoned her Bhowanipore constituency to contest from Nandigram, welcoming Adhikari’s challenge. Suvendu Adhikari had challenged Banerjee to run for Nandigram and promised to beat her.
Mamata Banerjee is a “outsider” in Nandigram, according to Adhikari, who is a “bumiputra” himself (son of the soil). Adhikari, who was once a loyal aide to the CM, had won the Nandigram seat in the 2016 assembly election, while another TMC member had won the seat in 2011. Following differences with the state’s ruling party, Adhikari left the TMC to join the BJP.
Suvendu Adhikari paid a visit to Lord Shiva’s temple in Nandigram yesterday and gave Mahashivratri puja. Adhikari paid a visit to the Sonachura Trilokeshwar Temple in the city, where a large crowd had gathered to perform puja on an auspicious day. There were also a good number of BJP supporters present while the BJP Candidate Suvendu offered prayers in the temple.
The battle for Nandigram is one of the most thrilling contests in the upcoming Bengal elections
