Battlground Nandigram: Mamata may face ex-close aide in high octane battle

By Soudhriti Bhabani Kolkata, March 4 : With the stage set for a battle royale in West Bengal, all eyes are fixed on East Midnapore’s Nandigram Assembly constituency as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that she would contest from there in the forthcoming polls.
Nandigram is a stronghold of newly-inducted BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who was elected on a Trinamool ticket from the high profile seat in 2016 and became a minister in the Mamata Banerjee-led state Cabinet.
The saffron camp is likely to announce the names of its candidates for the first two phases of the high-voltage Bengal Assembly polls later on Thursday. West Bengal will go to the polls in eight phases between March 27 and April 29. Counting of votes will take place on May 2.
It is widely acknowledged that the anti-farmland acquisition movement in Nandigram had galvanised public opinion in favour of Banerjee when she was in the opposition. She could overthrow the CPI-M-led Left Front government in Bengal following a prolonged protest against the proposed chemical hub SEZ project there in 2007.
The police firing that had killed at least 13 villagers, including women, had rocked the state, grabbing headlines in the international media. In the 2016 state Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress had secured about 67 per cent votes in Nandigram, while the BJP got only around 5 per cent.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had made deep inroads in the local vote bank there, winning around 30 per cent of the votes in Nandigram, making a significant dent into the once Trinamool bastion in East Midnapore district.