Within hours on Friday, the contest was thrown into extraordinary uncertainty. Nandigram was shaping up as one of Bengal’s most closely watched bypolls.
First, Mamata Banerjee’s candidate walked out of the race after meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. For Nandigram, a constituency already loaded with political history, the bypoll had suddenly acquired another dramatic layer. Read | Mamata Banerjee Drew Her Party’s Symbol By Hand. “Even when the candidate filed the affidavit, the District Magistrate raised no objections. Now, realizing that the political tide is turning in favour of the Congress during the campaign, the BJP is panicking,” Chowdhury stated.
Then, after Mamata’s faction decided to back the Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, he was arrested in connection with an old 2007 murder case. It’s Now Tied To An Indira Gandhi Case Milan Pradhan was arrested by the police while he was conducting a door-to-door campaign in Reyapara area of Nandigram around 5:30 PM on Friday.
“The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan for the Nandigram by-election is no coincidence – it is political revenge, the murder of democracy,” Gandhi said, adding that the Congress “will neither fear nor bow down” and would “fight – and win. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the coming together of all the anti-BJP forces has rattled the ruling party.
