BENGAL: THE BATTLE FOR NANDIGRAM
At the Nandakumar crossing, about 75 km southwest of Kolkata, the highway takes a magnificent loop before branching out in four directions. Though there are few signboards here marking the turn for Nandigram, political indicators are aplenty. Two campaign hoardings dominate the scenery—one from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that reads ‘Bangla nijer meye kei chaye (Bengal wants its own daughter)’ and another from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proclaiming ‘Nandigramer bhumiputra Suvendu (Nandigram’s son of the soil, Suvendu)’. These mark the road to the highest-voltage contest of the 2021 assembly election—the battle for Nandigram between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her former minister Suvendu Adhikari.
From here on, the road is heavily flanked by poll symbols—saffron party flags, hoardings and buntings carrying images of Ram and Hanuman, interspersed with bright blue posters pitching for the TMC. In Nandigram proper, there are also many undercurrents—like anti-incumbency—that surface in conversations with locals. “The demand for political change has been growing for the past three years,” says Amar Bag, a resident of Nandigram’s Reyapara. “The TMC has politicised the beneficiary lists for various government benefits and given job cards to its own members,” he alleges. “I was ostracised, my tea-shack was vandalised and my job card was cancelled because I spoke up against the party.” Other locals allege various other kinds of political extortion—for the empanelment of candidates for teaching jobs in schools, to get PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) funds, to obtain job cards and for relief payments following cyclone Amphan.
The electoral impact of these undercurrents has also been visible for some time. In the 2016 byelection for the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, which includes Nandigram, the BJP got about 196,000
votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, that figure had increased to about 534,000, dramatically narrowing the gap with the TMC, which got about 734,000. In this context, the switch of TMC heavyweights to the BJP gains fresh import. “Suvendu was looking to desert the TMC for the past year,” opines Ratikanta Bijali of Sherkhan Chowk. “It is not a coincidence that he left six months before the polls, when anti-incumbency was at its peak.” A more poignant measure of how much ground the TMC has lost here is the fading away of Mamata’s old slogan for Nandigram—“bhulte pari amar naam, bhulbo nako Nandigram
(I might forget my own name, but won’t forget the name Nandigram).” These days, it is far more common for the streets to resound with the the BJP’s “Jai Shree Ram”.
Adhikari appears to have settled into his new party, exploiting another undercurrent—religious appeals—to find common ground with voters who have been shifting their allegiance to the BJP over the past few years. Apart from making vigorous use of the “Jai Shree Ram” chant, he has also been pushing religious polarisation, telling the constituency’s Hindu and SC (scheduled caste) populations that the TMC returning to power will mean that they will not be able to profess their religious beliefs in as aggressive a fashion as under the BJP.
Taking direct aim at his opponent, he has also argued that Mamata’s decision to contest from Nandigram is “not out of love”, but because it is a relatively safe seat given the constituency’s large Muslim population—about 25 to 30 per cent. The BJP’s state president, Dilip Ghosh, has also said the same, accusing Mamata of “appeasing Muslims even in her choice of seat”. However, Adhikari has also said that he’s not worried about ‘the 30 per cent’—Nandigram’s Muslim voters—and that he has faith in the judgement of the ‘70 per cent’.
In her appeal to Nandigram’s Hindu population, Mamata has also been playing on religious sentiments. At her first public rally in the constituency on March 9, she challenged BJP leaders not to play the Hindu card. “I am a daughter of a Hindu Brahmin family,” she said. “I step out of my home after chanting Chandi shlokas (praises to Durga Ma).” Mamata also spent a major part of her two-day visit to Nandigram temple-hopping, visiting 19 temples in that time. Locals like Jayanti Jana, who crowded the Durga temple to catch sight of the chief minister, say that the BJP has been trying to paint her as ‘not Hindu’. “She’s very much a Hindu, [despite the propaganda] being spread,” says Jana. Many in Nandigram are also uncomfortable with the religious polarisation and the presumption of their political
MANY IN NANDIGRAM ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE POLARISATION AND PRESUMPTIONS ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL SYMPATHIES
affiliations. Mohammad Ajiz of Sherkhan Chowk says, “We Muslims are scared to open our mouths. The BJP treats us with suspicion because they feel we are Didi’s (Mamata’s) supporters.” Another local, Nasima Biwi of Tekhali, says, “Even I was deprived of the [Amphan] compensation—my roof got damaged but I didn’t even get a tarpaulin sheet. But [the BJP] takes it for granted that we are not with them.” Yet another local, Sheikh Abdulla, adds, “If we talk about the good condition of our roads, the availability of water and of being happy in Nandigram, the BJP considers us TMC supporters. We only got Rs 5,000 (in Amphan relief funds instead of Rs 20,000) but still it is assumed that we will support Mamata.” However, the atmosphere is quite different at Chowringhee Bazaar, several kilometres away, where Abu Taher, Mamata’s trusted aide, is pepping up a group of supporters. Soon after, a protest march begins, accompanied by burning tyres and shouted slogans—“Mir Jafar” and “gaddar”, the epithets that the TMC has branded Adhikari with since his departure from the TMC. Taher minces no words, saying that Adhikari will go down in history as a traitor. “After enjoying the benefits of the party for so long as a minister, and having put his family members in various offices of profit, he’s leaving the TMC and accusing Mamata of dynastic politics. No one will buy his story,” insists Taher. Taher and Sheikh Sufian, another TMC leader, say that while the contest in Nandigram will be a tough one, the situation still favours Mamata. “If Didi comes here in a wheelchair, can Nandigram look away?” asks Taher. “Moreover, it was us (him and Sufian) who were responsible for Adhikari’s electioneering at the booth level—we know how to turn the match in our favour.” However, Adhikari says he is confident that Mamata’s injury will yield few benefits at the poll. This may turn out to be true—while a section of the voters in Nandigram were initially sympathetic, as reports have emerged undercutting the ‘conspiracy’ angle, even Mamata supporters have found it difficult to continue arguing the point. The Election Commission, after investigating the incident, had concluded that there was no evidence of an attack on the chief minister, though it concluded that there had been a serious lapse of security. Iman Kalyan Lahiri, professor of international relations at Jadavpur University, says it is sad that the two prominent faces of the Nandigram movement—Mamata and Adhikari—are now at daggers drawn. “People have become divided rallying behind their respective leaders. But the real culprit behind BJP’s growth is the long history of deprivation and non-development. Religion has come as a natural corollary to the feeling of being denied and discriminated against,” he argues.