News Analysis India

Tag: Nandigram movement

  • 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.  

  • West Bengal polls 2021: CM Mamata Banerjee rejects ‘outsider’ tag in Nandigram

    By PTI
    NANDIGRAM: Coming down hard on those calling her an outsider in Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday for them people “coming from Gujarat” are insiders.

    Addressing booth-level TMC workers a day ahead of filing her nomination for the seat, Banerjee said people who had “sold their souls to outsiders from Gujarat” are insulting the Nandigram movement by playing the communal card.

    Banerjee is pitted against her former confidante Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP some time ago, in the high-profile seat.

    Without naming Adhikari even once, Banerjee said that she had made up her mind to contest either from the Singur or Nandigram–the two cradles of anti-land acquisition movement– that catapulted her to power in 2011.

    She said she decided to contest from Nandigram because of overwhelming response of the people. “I have heard some people are calling me an outsider in Nandigram. I am amazed. I was born and brought up in the neighbouring Birbhum district, and the person who is calling me an outsider was also not born here. Today I have become an outsider, and those coming from Gujarat have become insiders in Bengal,” she said.

    Adhikari has often called himself “bhoomiputra” (son of the soil) while seeking to get back at the TMC supremo who has been targeting the BJP with the “party of outsiders” barb. Accusing Adhikari of trying to incite communal passions, Banerjee said,”Those who have sold their souls to the outsiders are insulting the Nandigram land acquisition movement by playing the communal card.”

    “Some people are talking about 70:30 ratio (of Hindu- Muslim population). Those doing that are insulting the sacred Nandigram movement which people of both communities fought together. People of Nandigram will make BJP ‘April fool’ on April 1 when polling is held,” she asserted.