Union home minister Amit Shah will hold a road show here on Tuesday, covering a part of the route that Mamata Banerjee traversed in a wheelchair on Monday afternoon.
The last-minute decision by the BJP to field Shah on the last day of campaigning in Nandigram, which votes on April 1, is being seen as a clear affirmation of the “khela hobe (match is on)” slogan coined by the Bengal chief minister.
“Our leader and India’s strong home minister, Amit Shahji, will hold a road show from Reyapara Bridge to Shiv Mandir tomorrow,” said Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s candidate from Nandigram.
After Shah, Mithun Chakraborty will hit the streets before campaigning ends for the second phase of Bengal polls.
BJP sources said Shah had volunteered to be in Nandigram amid suggestions that Mamata’s prolonged presence in the area ahead of the polls may cost Suvendu, the BJP’s most prized catch in Bengal, dear.
Shah will visit a temple along with Suvendu and address a meeting near Shiv Mandir. Around the same time, Mamata will be in Sonachura, less than 20km away, after a road show.
“The contest is getting really close. Amitji’s presence will give Dada’s campaign a boost. Besides, his temple trip will help our polarisation agenda,” a source in the BJP said.
The explanation from the saffron camp — an unofficial one — suggested that despite its claims of having an edge over Trinamul, the BJP is deploying all its resources in Nandigram.
With both Mamata and Shah campaigning in Nandigram on the same day, a nervous district administration was finalising the security arrangements on Monday evening.
“Keeping law and order under control will be a challenge tomorrow.… Both sides are really charged up,” a senior district police officer said.
The Election Commission has already deputed 22 companies of central forces to Nandigram while the state police have stationed over 1,200 men and women in uniform to ensure peace in the area till April 1.
Nandigram, the epicentre of the anti-land-acquisition movement that catapulted Mamata to power in 2011, has become the most important battle ground in Bengal since Mamata nominated herself to take on turncoat Suvendu, whose rise in state politics too owes to the land crusade.
An impression that the battle for Nandigram is turning into a cliff-hanger gathered ground last week when Mamata announced she would camp in the East Midnapore village for five days in a row till April 1 to expose the turncoat before the people who had elected him five summers ago as their Trinamul MLA.
Since she launched an intensive campaign here on Sunday afternoon — the chief minister attended seven programmes, including a road show, in less than 24 hours — Mamata has been walking the talk and carrying out a vitriolic attack on Suvendu and his father, Sisir.
“What were the traitors doing when the police fired on March 14 (2007)? Where were they on November 10, the day known as Operation Sunrise (recapture of Nandigram by the CPM in 2007)?” Mamata thundered at a rally in Thakur Chowk on Monday afternoon.
The meeting was held after a 10km road show through Nandigram under the blazing March sun. Mamata, in a wheelchair and holding a cordless mic, urged the people standing along the road to vote for her for the development of Nandigram.
“The weather was so hostile, but the chief minister still chose to suffer the sun for two hours. It’s set to be a close contest,” said Naresh Manna, a middle-aged shopkeeper, near Reyapara Bridge.
At the rally after the road show, Mamata made an all-out attempt to dissociate Suvendu from the anti-land-acquisition protest, which the Trinamul turncoat claims he had led.
At meeting after meeting, Suvendu has been saying that Mamata became chief minister in 2011 only because of the movement he had led.
The war of words between Mamata and Suvendu over the ownership of the movement has become the overt theme — the covert one being the polarisation along religious lines — of the campaign in the last lap before the polls.
