Kolkata, Sept. 18 -- Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced her party's support for the Congress in the October 6 Nandigram bypoll, hours after its candidate withdrew from the contest following a meeting with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Calling the Congress a "sister party", Banerjee said the move was aimed at strengthening the INDIA bloc. At a press conference at her Kalighat residence, she said her faction had "earlier decided to support Congress in Nandigram, and it is the beginning of a future". Her remarks mark a significant political u-turn for the TMC, which during its 15 years in power has maintained that it can take on the BJP on its own in Bengal and has repeatedly resisted Congress' overtures for a broader electoral understanding in the state. "Let the message (for strengthening INDIA bloc) begin from Bengal," Banerjee said.
The development followed the withdrawal of Sanchita Pradhan Dey, who had been fielded by the Mamata faction in Nandigram. Pradhan Dey met Adhikari at Nabanna on Friday and subsequently withdrew her nomination, leaving the Banerjee camp without a candidate in the bypoll-bound constituency. Congress has fielded Milan Pradhan in Nandigram, and Banerjee's announcement means her faction will now support the Congress candidate instead of putting up another nominee.Reacting to the development, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Banerjee was free to make the announcement but stressed that the Congress had not sought her support. "She is a political leader. She can say anything she wants. But the fact is she had fielded a candidate and now that her candidate has withdrawn, she is extending support to us. We have not asked for her support," Chowdhury said.
Banerjee's announcement also came amid an extraordinary political churn triggered by the Election Commission's decision to freeze the 'All India Trinamool Congress' name and its 'flowers and grass' symbol for the October 6 bypolls. The poll panel on Friday allotted the Mamata Banerjee faction the name "Mamata All India Trinamool Congress" and the 'Football Player' symbol, while the rival faction led by Arup Roy was allotted the name "Democratic Trinamool Congress" and the 'Envelope' symbol for the bypolls. The arrangement is interim and will remain in force pending the Commission's final decision on the factional dispute. Banerjee, however, kept the question of Rejinagar open, saying a decision on the other seat going to the polls would be taken later. The Nandigram announcement carries particular political resonance for Banerjee. The anti-land acquisition movement in the constituency in 2007 became one of the defining battles of her political career and helped propel the Trinamool Congress' campaign against the Left Front, culminating in the party's return to power in West Bengal in 2011.
The 2011 Assembly election was fought by the TMC in alliance with the Congress and ended 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Fifteen years later, Banerjee has again extended support to the Congress in Nandigram, this time amid a sharply altered opposition landscape and an unprecedented dispute over the name, symbol and political identity of the party she founded. The Congress-TMC equation had already taken an unexpected turn earlier this week. Senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya had claimed that the Banerjee-led faction approached the Congress central leadership with a proposal under which the Congress would contest Nandigram while the TMC fought from Rejinagar. The Congress leadership subsequently consulted its West Bengal unit, which opposed an electoral understanding at this stage. The TMC rejected the claim that it had made such an offer.
There were also reports that sections of the TMC leadership had argued against any obligation to coordinate with the Congress in Parliament, underscoring the anger within the party after the Congress turned down the proposed bypoll understanding. The episode highlighted the continuing political distance between the two parties despite both being constituents of the INDIA bloc at the national level. In West Bengal, the TMC and Congress have largely remained electoral rivals, particularly as the Congress has struggled to retain its earlier political space in a state dominated by Banerjee's party since 2011.
For the October 6 bypolls, the two rival groups will now appear under separate identities, while the Mamata faction has withdrawn from one of the two constituencies altogether. For the Congress, the development follows its decision not to enter into the reported seat-sharing arrangement with the TMC. Its Nandigram candidate will now contest with the declared support of Banerjee's faction, even as Chowdhury made clear that the Congress had not sought such backing. For Banerjee, the immediate message is one of opposition unity, with Nandigram being used as the first point of convergence. Whether the decision remains confined to Nandigram or develops into a wider political understanding remains open, particularly with Banerjee yet to announce her position on Rejinagar. The October 6 bypolls, which began as a contest involving rival TMC factions, the Congress and the BJP, have thus acquired an additional dimension, with the Nandigram contest emerging as a test of the rapidly shifting opposition equations in West Bengal.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.