Bengal: Nandigram turns from Mamata’s triumph to political torment
New Delhi: Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district, situated between the Ganga and Haldi rivers, has been the defining battleground in Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee’s political career. While it once propelled her rise to the Chief Minister’s chair, it later became the constituency where she dramatically challenged Suvendu Adhikari in 2021 and lost, and now the seat where her candidate withdrew ahead of the October 6 by-election, leaving her perplexed.
In 2007, it was the site of violent anti-land acquisition protests, which began earlier when the Left Front government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sought to acquire land in Nandigram for a Special Economic Zone. Farmers feared displacement and loss of livelihood, and the resistance quickly spread across East Midnapore.
At the forefront of this agitation was Suvendu Adhikari, then a close Mamata aide, who reportedly mobilised villagers and gave the movement its organisational backbone. On March 14, 2007, the conflict reached a tragic climax with police opening fire on protesting villagers, killing at least 14 and injuring scores more. The shocking incident became a turning point in the state’s political history.
The brutality of the firing exploded in the face of the administration and provided Mamata Banerjee the moral high ground and political impetus. She linked Nandigram with Hooghly district’s Singur movement against Tata Motors’ Nano factory, weaving both struggles into her larger narrative of “Ma, Mati, Manush” (Mother, Earth, People). This slogan resonated deeply, and Mamata positioned herself as the defender of farmers and low-income people, contrasting sharply with the Left’s image of authoritarian industrialisation.
By 2011, the accumulated anger and hope from Nandigram and Singur culminated in the Left Front’s fall after 34 years in power, a seismic shift in state politics. Suvendu’s family further consolidated influence in East Midnapore, with his father Sisir Adhikari already an influential leader – earlier with Congress, then the Trinamool – and his brothers being important political figures in the region.
By 2016, Suvendu was elected MLA from Nandigram, but in 2020, he fell out with the Trinamool leadership, broke ranks with Mamata, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His defection was a blow to the Trinamool, but Mamata responded with her characteristic nonchalance.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, she abandoned her safe Bhabanipur seat to contest Adhikari directly in Nandigram. The contest became a national spectacle, symbolising not just a constituency battle but a clash of significance. The result was stunning; Suvendu defeated Mamata by 1,956 votes, a symbolic humiliation for the leader who had built her career on Nandigram protests. Though she retained her Chief Ministership by winning Bhabanipur in a by-election, the Nandigram loss remained a scar.
Five years later, the shadow of Nandigram continues to loom large. In this year’s April Assembly elections, Suvendu consolidated his position, rising to Chief Minister of West Bengal and defeating his former mentor in the same Bhabanipur constituency.
After the Assembly poll rout, the Trinamool disintegrated, and internal bickering, defections, and allegations of misrule and misappropriation weakened Mamata’s faction. Now her candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, who abruptly withdrew after meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at his office, has left Mamata without a nominee in Nandigram.
In a desperate move, she announced support for Congress candidate Milan Pradhan as part of the INDIA bloc strategy. But this move too fell flat when Pradhan was arrested in connection with an old case.
Thus, Nandigram has turned full circle in Mamata’s career; the site of her greatest triumph has become her most stinging defeat, reminding everyone again how political fortunes can switch.
Over time, the once-unknown Nandigram has become a symbol of West Bengal’s political transformation, where Mamata Banerjee’s legacy continues to be tested.