Kolkata: West Bengal's Nandigram has become the talk of the town after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced to fight the polls from Nandigram, abandoning her home constituency — Bhawanipore.
The announcement is also important as Nandigram is the constituency of her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, who recently crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
With speculations over Adhikari's possible candidature from Nandigram gaining more traction, all eyes are now set on the Assembly constituency which played a key role in bringing about a change in the political guards in Bengal in 2011.
Nandigram is important for Trinamool Congress as well as other political parties. As far as the Congress-Left Front-Indian Secular Front (ISF) alliance is concerned, it is now almost certain that Abbas Siddique himself will contest from Nandigram.
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If that happens, the question will arise whether division in votes in Muslim-dominated Nandigram would put the BJP in an advantageous position.
In fact, Banerjee was quite visibly annoyed when asked about Siddique's possible candidature from Nandigram. "Do not ask me such questions. Give me some peace," she told the media.
As promised earlier, TMC has not offered tickets to sitting MLAs who have crossed 80 years. On the other hand, the party has given emphasis for young faces, women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and celebrities from the silver screen world.
Actress Sayantika Bandopadhyaya is the candidate from Bankura, while singer Aditi Munsi is the candidate from Rajarhat-Gopalpur. A clear attempt was made to scatter the celebrity candidates throughout the state to encash on their on-screen popularity to tide over the election match.
The surprise masterstroke was the candidate from Behala-East. The sitting MLA from that constituency, Sovan Chatterjee is probably contesting as the BJP candidate from there. On Friday, the chief minister announced the name of Chatterjee's wife Ratna Chatterjee as the Trinamool candidate from that constituency. Sovan and Ratna are currently going through a divorce suit.
Cricketer Manoj Tiwari was announced as the candidate from the Shibpur constituency in Howrah, where the Trinamool Congress is currently on a sticky wicket after the "son of the turf' Rajib Bandopadhyay joined and sitting MLA, Baishali Dalmia joined BJP.
