Nandigram: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she will contest the coming Assembly polls from Nandigram.
Addressing a public rally at Tekhali here, Ms Banerjee said, “I will fight from Nandigram. My soul said to me, Nandigram is your lucky place, your holy place. So, you should fight from Nandigram.”
“I would like to request my state president Subrata Bakshi to consider my name as the candidate from Nandigram in 2021 state polls,” the TMC supremo said.
The chief minister is presently an MLA from Bhawanipore constituency in SouthKolkata.
“Nandigram is my elder sister and Bhawanipore is my younger sister. I will not leave attention towards my Bhawanipur seat. I promise to the people of Bhawanipur that I will give a good candidate there. I may fight from both seats,” she said.
Former TMC leader Suvendhu Adhikari, who switched to BJP in December last, had won from Nandigram in 2016.
Nandigram and Singur land movement catapulted the Trinamool supremo to the political centre stage of Bengal.
In the 2012 Assembly election, Ms Banerjee with Suvendu Adhikari’s help campaigned for farmers’ land in Nandigram and ousted the then Left government.
In 2007, 14 people were killed in clashes in Nandigram between protesting farmers and the police.
In the subsequent election, Ms Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress crafted the “Ma, Maati, Manush” campaign around that incident. (UNI)