Congress Candidate Arrested in Nandigram After Mamata Banerjee Extends Support

West Bengal police arrested Congress candidate Milan Pradhan in connection with an old murder case on Friday, just hours after former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced her faction would support his candidacy in the upcoming Nandigram Assembly bypoll. The arrest follows a chaotic week for the constituency, which is scheduled for voting on October 6.

Mamata Banerjee's political maneuver was prompted by the sudden withdrawal of her own faction's candidate, Sanchita Pradhan (Dey). Pradhan (Dey) had been announced as the candidate on Sunday, but withdrew her nomination on Friday following a reported meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday night. The withdrawal left the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress without a candidate, as the deadline for nominations had already passed.

At a press conference held at her Kalighat residence, Mamata Banerjee described the decision to back the Congress nominee as a strategic move to strengthen the INDIA bloc. She stated that she had received a call from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their shared fight for the party name and symbol, though she clarified that the Nandigram support was her own initiative. The Election Commission of India had recently frozen the use of the traditional Trinamool Congress name and the flowers and grass symbol for the bypolls, forcing the Mamata faction to adopt 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.

The arrest of Milan Pradhan in connection with a 2007 murder case during the Nandigram anti-land acquisition protests has drawn sharp criticism from the Mamata faction. Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh questioned the timing of the police action, suggesting it was motivated by fear. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury maintained that while Banerjee was free to offer support, the Congress had not requested it, and he criticized the Mamata faction for its internal instability. The Nandigram seat remains a significant political battleground, having been the site of the 2007 movement that propelled the Trinamool Congress to power in 2011.