West Bengal elections 2021: CPI(M) fields Minakshi Mukherjee against Mamata, Suvendu from Nandigram

Kolkata, Mar 10: The Left-led opposition grand alliance on Wednesday fielded CPI(M)'s Minakshi Mukherjee from the high-stakes Nandigram seat where she will fight the upcoming assembly elections against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is the TMC candidate, and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.

The election in Nandigram is being watched closely as Banerjee takes on her former aide, Adhikari, in a high-pitched battle. Mukherjee was announced as the Left-Congress-ISF alliance candidate by Left Front chairman Biman Bose at a press conference.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination for Nandigram assembly seat, where she will take on her former protege and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and exuded confidence of winning it saying she has never returned empty-handed from the land of anti-farm land acquisition movement.

Accompanied by TMC president Subrata Bakshi, Banerjee filed her papers at the Haldia sub-divisional office here after taking part in a 2-km roadshow. She offered prayers at a temple before filing her nomination, and at another after doing so.

"When I had visited Nandigram in January, there was no MLA from here as the sitting MLA had resigned. I looked at the faces of the common people and decided to contest from here," she said after filing her paper.

Deputy chairman of East Midnapore zilla parishad Sheikh Sufiyan has been appointed as Banerjee's election agent. "I have never returned empty-handed from here. Nandigram is not just a name, it is the name of a movement. Bhulte pari sobar naam, bhulbo nako Nandigram (I can forget everyone's name, but can never forget Nandigram). That's the significance of this place for me," the TMC supremo said.

Banerjee said that she had made up her mind this time to contest either from the Singur or Nandigram - the cradles of the anti-farm land acquisition movement which had catapulted her to power in 2011.

"My feeling is very clear - no one can divide this place along religious lines. During the Nandigram movement all the communities had participated in it. Those who are lecturing now about its legacy were nowhere when violence was unleashed here. I was fighting alone," she said.