Abhishek Banerjee wasn’t on the Nandigram ballot in 2021. He didn’t hint at being on it in 2026 either. But a single remark from the BJP was enough to push the constituency back to centre stage.
At an event in Maheshtala on Monday, the TMC national general secretary dismissed the buzz as a “manufactured flutter”. He added that he would contest from “any seat”, including Nandigram or Darjeeling, if his party asked him to.
“I will work as my party instructs. If the party asks me to contest from Nandigram, I will do that. If the party asks me to contest from Darjeeling, I will do that as well. I am saying this on record,” he said.
Banerjee added, “It may be Sukanta Majumdar's inner wish. Trinamool will take its internal decisions. The BJP does not have to think about where I will contest or not.”
The remark was aimed at Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar, who on Sunday claimed he had “information” that Banerjee was preparing to contest from Nandigram and was “posting loyal officers” in the district.
“He is very keen to become the deputy CM, and contesting from Nandigram is part of that plan,” Majumdar had said, before retreating into a safer political line, “Wherever Mamata Banerjee contests, we will defeat her.”
On Monday, Banerjee said: “Wherever and however the party wants to utilise me, I will work accordingly.”
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition, did not miss the opportunity to weigh in.
“Even if Abhishek contests from here, nobody in Nandigram will vote for him,” Adhikari said. He has repeatedly framed the constituency as the BJP’s “fortress”, a claim the TMC disputes.
“After the Lok Sabha results, the BJP's top leadership has put Suvendu on their dislike list,” TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said. “Even in Nandigram, Trinamool won the panchayat polls. Suvendu's biggest challenge is to hold the seat. And Abhishek Banerjee or Mamata Banerjee aren't even necessary, a grassroots Trinamool worker can defeat them.”
The intensity around Nandigram is rooted in its place in Bengal’s political history. A farmers’ resistance in 2007 against the Left Front government’s land acquisition plan turned into a movement that reshaped the state’s politics.
Mamata Banerjee and a then-TMC lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari emerged as the faces of that agitation. The momentum carried the party through the 2008 panchayat polls, into the 2009 Lok Sabha sweep, and eventually to Writers’ Buildings in 2011.
Since then, Nandigram has been more than a constituency; it has served as a recurring symbol of mandate and muscle. Mamata’s narrow loss to Adhikari in 2021, the TMC maintains the result was “manipulated”, only added to the story.
She returned to the Assembly through Bhawanipore, but Nandigram has remained part of Bengal’s recurring political script.