Nandigram: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee will file her nomination for the Nandigram Assembly constituency on Wednesday.
Ms Banerjee is here on a two-day campaign visit before she will file her nomination paper for the seat on March 10.
The chief minister is pitted against her former confidante Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP some time ago, in the high-profile Nandigram seat that will go to poll on April 1 in the second phase.
Mr Adhikari will file his nomination papers from the Nandigram Assembly constituency on March 12.
Nandigram, the cradle of the anti-land acquisition movement that catapulted Ms Banerjee to power in 2011, will witness a powerful battle between the TMC and BJP this time.
This was Ms Banerjee’s first visit to Nandigram after she announced her candidature
for the Nandigram seat, dominated by the peasants, who fought against the Communist
government’s acquisition of land for special economic zone in 2007, leading to their
downfall four years later in 2011 Assembly poll.
Ms Banerjee vowed to make Nandigram a model for the whole region and added that
a university will be built in Nandigram and the same will be mentioned in TMC’s election
manifesto.
Ms Banerjee on Tuesday visited a tea stall here and served tea to the people around and also visited Chandi Mandir and the Shamshabad Mazar and offered tributes.
This is not the first time chief minister has been seen savouring and serving tea in public. In August 2019, Ms Banerjee made tea and shared it with the locals at a stall in Duttapur village in Digha as part of an administrative tour-cum-break from city life.
Addressing a rally a day before filing her nomination paper from the Nandigram Assembly seat, the TMC supremo said, “I have decided to fight from Nandigram due to people’s response.”
“If you don’t want me to file the nomination, I will not, but if you consider me your daughter then I will move ahead with filing my nomination,” she said.
In a bid to counter the BJP’s allegation of Muslim appeasement by her government, the chief minister said, “I am a Hindu girl too. Don’t play the Hindu card with me. Tell me, do you know how to be a good Hindu?”
The TMC supremo kicked up a storm by reciting mantras (hymns) from a religious text, Chandipath.
“I do Chandipath before stepping out every day,” said Ms Banerjee adding, the BJP should not “play its Hindu card with me”.
