BJP’s neo-convert Suvendu Adhikari and CPM’s young turk Minakshi Mukherjee filed their nomination papers for East Midnapore’s Nandigram Assembly seat on Friday, completing the nomination filing process for the high-profile constituency, where the two are locked in an electoral battle with Trinamul candidate and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP made Adhikari’s nomination filing a high-profile event by deputing central ministers Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan to accompany him from Nandigram for the paperwork at the Haldia SDO’s office.

“The BJP will form the government in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee must take her leave on May 2,” petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the crowd at Durgachowk in Haldia shortly before Adhikari filed the papers.

Before heading for Haldia to file the papers, Adhikari continued the tradition started by Mamata of paying obeisance at local temples. Around 9am, Adhikari’s contingent visited temples in Sonachura and in Nandigram before heading for Haldia. Adhikari also offered a few words of encouragement to supporters before entering the SDO office.

Adhikari’s name, much like Mamata’s, was proposed by members of a family that lost a member to alleged political murder. Manasi Mondal, the widow of Nishikanta Mondal who was the Sonachura panchayat pradhan when he was allegedly killed in 2009 by alleged political opponents, proposed Adhikari’s name.

“Suvendu da has been the backbone of Nandigram’s liberation. I am not denying the chief minister’s part, but I would never put her in place of Suvendu da, in terms of what has been done for Nandigram,” said Manasi’s son, Satyajit Mondal, referring to their roles in the Nandigram land agitation during the Left rule. Mamata and Adhikari had been colleagues then.

At Durgachowk, Adhikari also brought up the 2007 land agitations, saying: “2007 was the forerunner to 2011's paribartan (change). Now we have to fight for independence a second time (in the polls).”

Somewhat ironically, Adhikari blamed the Trinamul government for the rise in unemployment in the state, oblivious to the fact that he had been a key member of Mamata’s cabinet till December 2020, when he joined the BJP.

BJP’s nominee Suvendu Adhikari files his papers for the same seat at the SDO’s office in Haldia on Friday. Telegraph picture

He claimed Opposition members of the Assembly had been kept out of government meetings for the last 10 years.

“Former CPM MLA Tapasi Mondal was always stymied whenever she tried to do any work. She will bring a huge change to Haldia, May onwards,” he added, before exhorting supporters of the need to have the same party at the state and central for there to be “real change”.

CPM turncoat Mondal is now the BJP’s candidate for the Haldia Assembly seat.

CPI(M) candidate Mukherjee arrived in a procession of party workers to file her papers for the Nandigram seat at the SDO’s office in Haldia a couple of hours before Adhikari. Asked about the battle ahead, Minakshi said: “Our two opponents (Mamata and Adhikari) are heavyweights indeed, but heavyweights of corruption. The people of Nandigram have learned (that) and will defeat them. They will vote for the Left, the secular and democratic alternative that we are offering.”