Mamata Banarjee who led an aggressive campaign to counter the BJP onslaught in West Bengal assembly elections is trailing in Nandigram against her aide-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari.
According to latest trends, the West Bengal chief minister is trailing by nearly 8,500 votes.Mamata Banerjee, who is seeking a third term in office, had left Bhabanipur constituency in Kolkata to fight from Nandigram, the epicentre of an anti-land acquisition movement that catapulted her party to power in 2011 ending the 34-year-long Left Front rule.Mamata opted for Nandigram after Suvendu quit the Trinamool and joined the BJP.
Nandigram seemed like an easy fight for Suvendu until Mamata Banerjee chose to contest from the seat instead of Bhowanipore in the Kolkata district from where she was elected in 2011 and 2016. The Chief Minister’s decision gave rise to speculation that Bhowanipore was no longer secure for her.
Suvendu is considered the most influential mass leader in Bengal after Mamata Banerjee. Nandigram is at the core of his Purba Medinipur bastion.
For Mamata Banerjee, who has one of the shrewdest political minds in the country, to choose Nandigram, with no alternative constituency to fall back on is a sign of not just confidence but deep calculations of the ground realities in the region.
Suvendu was projecting himself as bhoomiputra , while the BJP is trying to project Mamata Banerjee as an “outsider” in the region, a strategy she has adopted against the saffron party in other parts of the State.
However, the legacy of the Nandigram movement alone may not be enough for Suvendu to win the election they thought.
