West Bengal polls 2021: Mamata hemmed in Nandigram

Mamata Banerjee will spend the last four days before polling in Nandigram where the top brass of the Trinamool Congress -- party chief Subrata Baxi, Cabinet colleague Purnendu Basu and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen – have been camping the past one month to ward off the BJP’s strong bid to oust the Chief Minister in her own constituency with her once-trusted lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari.

Not to be outdone, the BJP’s leadership including the central party’s West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya is moving to Nandigram for three days with a road show scheduled for Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the last day of the campaigning on March 30. The presence of the top leadership of both the parties - the fact that the Chief Minister herself will be stationed here for four days - is indicative of Mamata Banerjee’s uphill battle to combat the resurgent BJP which has challenged her in her own constituency with the formidable candidature of Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari was critical to Banerjee’s movement against land acquisition in Nandigram and Sigur which eventually dislodged the CPM after 34 long years of ruling Bengal. With her leg in a cast and ten-year anti-incumbency, the strain of the present contest is showing in Nandigram where sporadic violence has started erupting in the final heat of the campaign.

Nandigram prepares for Suvendu Adhikari's rally amid the West Bengal Assembly elections.

At Suvendu Adhikari’s office in Nandigram on Saturday, his election managers were on the phone with central security forces, summoning them to a nearby village called Sona Chura village. “Our campaigners have been held hostage there. Look at their dadagiri (muscle-flexing by TMC),” fumed a BJP worker. Adhikari called within a few seconds, asking the workers to summon the security personnel immediately. “We have called them, they are rushing to the spot,” a worker informed Adhikari. The air was tense with Adhikari’s supporters constantly working the phones.

The TMC, on its part, alleged that their supporters are being roughed up by Adhikari’s men. TMC workers staged a noisy protest outside the Nandigram police station against attack on their colleagues at a village called Boyal, a few kilometres away. “Look at the police, they are not acting. The central forces have taken over. Our people are not being able to move,” alleged a TMC worker while loudspeakers across the Nandigram town blared slogans against Adhikari and his “gang”.

Didi versus Dada

Across Nandigram, the fierceness of the contest is almost 'cinematically' evident in the banners, posters and the respective party flags that vie for space in the fields, over the ponds and market-places. Equal number of Mamata Banerjee posters and TMC’s leaf-and-flower motif flags compete with large cut-outs of a defiant-looking Adhikari with a smiling Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the vast paddy fields and street sides. Adhikari, with his strong cadre support in Nandigram was the closest to a local satrap in the TMC where Banerjee has been only power centre. The anti-land acquisition stir against a chemical hub in Nandigram not just brought down the 34-year Left rule in Bengal, but was also instrumental in the rise of Adhikari as the local bigwig and regional power centre.

“Dada (as Suvendu is called) built the organisation here for 10 years. He is the one with grassroots connect. But then, some groupies in Didi’s party started clipping his wings. He was unhappy. He couldn’t work for the people,” a Suvendu supporter and now BJP party worker doing door-to-door campaigning said.

The allegations of polarisation on communal lines or recent “aggressive speeches” by his leader with repeated chanting of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ are brushed aside as “made up stories”. But Adhikari’s camp has internalised the BJP line, bringing in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath to campaign here and mouthing sharp, communal rhetoric during the campaign. “Bengal will turn into Kashmir soon if Trinamool wins,” Suvendu said recently.

Anti-Incumbency and Corruption

Besides Adhikari’s candidature and personal support base, the biggest factor in Mamata facing a tough challenge in Nandigram is anti-incumbency and corruption at the local level. Gopalnagar, a village with a Trinamool-controlled panchayat is now painted in saffron. The State Government’s cash-delivery systems, free rations, “kanyashree” schemes for women and “Duare Sarkar” a scheme to deliver Aadhaar, ration card, all certificates et al within easy reach, has not stemmed people’s anger against corruption and mismanagement of cyclone Amphan relief money.

Narayan Samanta was part of the “village development committee” that was formed by the local Panchayat, to ensure greater development at the grassroots. He was asked to sign on 10 blank pages as “acceptance of development work”. On his refusal, he was branded BJP and when he made an application for Amphan relief, it was “summarily rejected”.

“Despite my blind support to Trinamool, I was humiliated for raising a voice against corruption. Now I’m going to vote against them. I can read, I saw the BJP has promised similar cash doles too,” he claims alleging rampant corruption.

Sandhya Mia, the homemaker from Nandigram’s Reyapara, is unhappy that she and her family missed out on ₹20,000 as cyclone Amphan relief after the Trinamool-run panchayat at Gopalnagar denied her claims. If she fails to arrange funds by the monsoons, then her family of three including a ‘divyansh’ daughter may have to relocate. Her hope, a change in government may make life better for her in the coming days.

Tough contest

But Banerjee is an old war horse with a lot of fight still left. She is not lacking local support, especially among those who have seen her struggle against the CPM for decades. In the market places and villages, her supporters defend TMC and counter “propaganda”. “All control was with Suvendu, his “henchmen” and family. So, were they not doing corruption in the name of Didi? Didi trusted Dada and gave him complete powers here. Not only has he betrayed it; he even is creating a communal divide,” says Abu Taher, one of the leaders of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (the faction that spearheaded anti-land acquisition movement in the region in 2007) who aided Suvendu Adhikari for several years.

In Adhikari’s office, the workers looked decidedly more anxious than the Trinamool cadre and party leaders. “We are up against the CM here. It will not be a walk-over,” said a BJP worker.

Mohammed Ashraf who runs the pan-shop at Nandigram market - meters away from the police station - confidently said he will vote for the Trinamool. “The cash dole schemes by Didi are a life-saver. There is free ration and subsidised healthcare for my family of four including two daughters,” said Ashraf.

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