News Analysis India

Tag: Nandigram assembly seat

  • The significance of Nandigram in West Bengal polls

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The assembly constituency of Nandigram, which will witness a high-octane, high profile battle between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her former ministerial colleague and now BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, will go to the polls in the second phase of the ongoing West Bengal assembly elections on April 1.

    Adhikari had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in December last year and is raring to give a tough fight to the Trinamool Congress chief.

    Nandigram is touted to be the deciding constituency in the Bengal polls. BJP’s chances of winning the state assembly elections would increase manifold if they can somehow manage to win Nandigram.

    ALSO READ: Constituencies to look out for in 2nd phase of polling in Bengal

    In the 2016 by-election for the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, which includes Nandigram, BJP got about 196,000 votes. However, BJP inflicted a shock to the TMC when it won 18 Lok Sabha seats with a vote share of more than 40 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

    And it is the performance in the 2019 general assembly elections that has made the BJP a serious contender for power in the state. While the party did very well in the hills — north Bengal, and the Jangalmahal region — it failed to cross a critical threshold in the south Bengal region. South Bengal is the most populous region of the state and accounts for 167 out of the 294 assembly constituencies. Unless the BJP makes significant advances in south Bengal, it would be very difficult for the BJP to beat TMC.

    ALSO READ: Nandigram torn between Dada and Didi

    Violence took place in Nandigram in 2007 in the aftermath of a failed project by the communist government of West Bengal to acquire land for a special economic zone. The policy led to an emergency in the region, and 14 people lost their lives in a police shooting.

    Mamata and her party noted the issue and raised the slogan “Ma Mati Manush” (Mother, Motherland and People) which was used in their election campaigns. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later exonerated the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government of responsibility for the shootings.

    Mamata later claimed that the violence was indeed planned by the Adhikaris, who were members of TMC back then, to dethrone the communist government.

    ALSO READ: To salute movement, I chose Nandigram over Singur, says Mamata Banerjee

    Fourteen years after a bloody farmland agitation in Nandigram changed the political landscape in West Bengal, battle lines have been redrawn in Nandigram — a place that shook the foundations of the mighty 34-year-old Left Front regime in the state and propelled TMC to power in 2011.

    Adhikari has claimed that BJP will defeat Mamata — who is for the first time contesting from Nandigram — by a margin of over 50,000 votes, something which will be known only once the counting takes place on May 2.  

  • To salute movement, I chose Nandigram over Singur, says Mamata Banerjee

    By ANI
    NANDIGRAM: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader on Tuesday said that she chose to contest from the Nandigram Assembly constituency over Singur to salute the Nandigram movement.

    “I could have contested from any other constituency but I have chosen Nandigram to pay my respect to the mothers & sisters of this place. To salute the Nandigram movement, I chose Nandigram over Singur,” she said.

    “Remember, if I have entered Nandigram once, I will not leave. Nandigram is my place, I will stay here,” she further said.

    Earlier in the day, she led a road rally in Bhagabeda of Nandigram.

    ALSO READ: Nandigram torn between Dada and Didi

    “Bury Bharatiya Janata Party politically and bowl them out from Nandigram and West Bengal,” she said in Sona Chura, Nandigram.

    She also reminded the voters and TMC cadre to maintain their calm during voting in the State Assembly polls.

    “During election cast your votes peacefully. Keep in mind, ‘cool cool Trinamool, thanda thanda cool cool, vote pabe joda phool’. Keep your mind cool for 48 hours,” she said.

    Polling in the Nandigram constituency will take place in the second phase of the Assembly elections on April 1.

    Meanwhile, the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections concluded with an estimated 79.79 per cent voter turnout on Saturday, which covered 30 seats from Purulia, Jhargram, Bankura, Purba and Paschim Medinipur.