Mamata Banerjee to contest from Nandigram, take BJP head on

After announcing Trinamool Congress list of 291 candidates for the high octane Assembly polls beginning this month party supremo Mamata Banerjee made her intention clear on Friday that she will only contest from Nandigram in East Midnapore district considered a stronghold of newlyinducted BJP leader and once close aid to the Chief Minister Suvendu AdhikariThe party has left three seats for a Gorkha party in Darjeeling I will only contest from Nandigram Banerjees message was unambiguous and loud hinting that the popular leader never shies away from a challenge and loves a headon confrontationWhen Banerjee took everyone by surprise by declaring her intent to contest from Nandigram during a rally there two months ago a battery of BJP leaders had ridiculed the proposed moveSome said she would contest from both her traditional constituency of Bhowanipore and Nandigram just in case she loses the conflictscarred East Midnapore seatOthers like former lieutenant turned BJP national vicepresident Mukul Roy had that predicted Banerjee will quietly slip back to her comfort zone in BhowaniporeSuvendu Adhikari once confidante turned BJP leader has challenged Banerjee to fight from Nandigram only if she was prepared to lose by a margin of atleast 50000 votesBanerjee has now accepted the challenge proving Mukul Roy wrong by fielding another trusted lieutenant Sovandeb Chatterjee from BhowaniporeWhy did she take such a risk Lorai e bhoy pai na bhai Loraier math theke ami palai na I am not afraid of a fight I never run away from the battlefield she saidAnalysts however dismissed suggestions that Banerjees move is hasty taken on the spurofthemomentThis is a calculated move Her margin in Bhowanipore has come down over the years as the large nonBengali electorate in the area has increasingly turned to the BJP By fighting from Nandigram she wants to revive the memory of the epic land struggle and deny that legacy to the Adhikari clan That may swing East and West Midnapore towards Trinamul and limit the damage caused by Adhikaris defection said political commentator Sukhoranjan DasguptaAdhikaris defection had rattled Mamata Banerjee and raised the spectre of a BJP surge in the two Midnapore districts which have 35 seats in the 294strong state AssemblyBanerjee fighting from Nandigram can limit the damage in the Midnapore region She is the only one in the party who can counter the Adhikari factor So it is a desperate throw of the dice she had to resort to said another analyst Ashis BiswasHe said Banerjee has made a huge gender statement by contesting a tough battle like Nandigram to swing Bengals huge women vote towards her party by projecting a David versus Goliath contest against a male dominated BJP faction sort of Ma Kali taking on the demonsAs many as 35 per cent of Nandigrams voters are Muslims while many are from the backward castes and rural poor So Trinamool thinktanks including Prashant Kishor reckon they are likely to support Banerjee rather than welloff Marwaris Gujaratis and Punjabis or even white collar Bengalis who think her Singur and Nandigram agitations only denied Bengal a tyrst with prospective future industrialisationAnd since the BJP may be forced to field Adhikari from Nandigram now a victory there may finish the Adhikari stronghold in MidnaporeWith so much at stake Banerjee has decided to lead from the front all guns blazing a calculated image projection based as much on Banerjees gut feeling and on calculations of her chief political consultant KishorBanerjee has also lived up to her penchant for star valueCricketer Manoj Tewari will contest from the prestigious Singur constituency in Hooghly district singer Aditi Munshi from Rajarhat in Kolkata filmmaker Raj Chakraborty from Barrackpore and tribal actor Birbaha Hansda from JhargramIn Behala East the party is fielding Ratna Chatterjee the wife of former Bengal minister and Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee who had joined the BJP last year with his girlfriend Baisakhi BanerjiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever