On election day in Nandigram, the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari personally surveilled more than 100 booths, while his Trinamool Congress rival, Pabitra Kar, oversaw voting from home for most of the day, visiting only a small number of booths.

The BJP candidate practically had no challenger in the constituency on vote day.

Arrest warrants are out for around 42 Trinamool leaders and activists in old cases. Seven of these 42 are election committee members of Trinamool candidates. None of them could be seen in the area on vote day.

Trinamool candidate Kar was Adhikari's long-time aide in Nandigram during the land movement when Adhikari was with Trinamool. After Adhikari defected to the BJP in December 2020, Kar was an active foot soldier for the BJP in the 2021 elections. Adhikari defeated chief minister Mamata Banerjee by a slim margin Nandigram.

Adhikari, who would challenge Mamata from Bhabanipur on April 29, on Thursday said: "The CRPF and the Election Commission locked up Trinamool goons, including Sheikh Sufian, Shahabuddin, Sheikh Shamsul."

Adhikari said he would get a good number of Muslim votes. "On the day of the 2021 Assembly elections, I was not allowed to enter some booths here. I received only 400 Muslim votes. This time I will get 4,000 votes from educated young, nationalist Muslims."

In the 2021 Assembly elections in Nandigram, Adhikari could not enter several minority booths. This time, Adhikari went to several minority booths, including Garh Chakra Beria, Amdabad and Bhimkata, and spoke to voters. At Bhimkata, on his way back from the booths, he encountered Trinamool supporters on the side of the road chanting "Joy Bangla" and calling him a thief.

On the Trinamool protests, Adhikari said: "After I came, some people staged a drama in front of the media. Nobody protested in front of me."

A Nandigram voter, Adhikari's ancestral home in Contai. Visiting booth after booth from morning to evening, he snacked on jhalmuri, and had cucumbers for lunch. At times, he sipped on coconut water.

Adhikari claimed that in 2011, there was anti-incumbency against the Left in Bengal, but not to this extent against Trinamool in 2026. "I have never seen anti-incumbency like this before. The BJP will get 125 out of 152 seats in the first phase," he said.

Contacted on why Kar and Trinamool cadres were not seen much in the field, the Trinamool candidate said: "I have already done my studies, there is no need to study on the day of the exam."

"There are workers at the booths. There is no need for leaders on the streets," he claimed.

Kar claimed that Nandigram's victory was ensured. "We are fighting to increase the margin of victory," he added.