Nandigram (East Midnapore), June 2: On Thursday, Ayesha Begum slung a grocery bag across her bicycle handle and rode 4km to Nandigram Bazar.

If a curious neighbour had looked inside the nylon bag when she returned home an hour later, they would have been surprised to find that it contained only a packet of puffed rice.

What they might have missed was a sheet of paper hidden under the packet. It was a nomination form for the gram panchayat elections.

Ayesha, wife of a farmer, will contest as a CPM-backed Independent from Samsabad village in Nandigram I block, where voting is scheduled on July 2.

“Party leaders had advised me to pick up the form without telling anybody,” Ayesha said.

So, she had pedalled alone to the office of the Nandigram I block development officer (BDO) at Nandigram Bazar, without any party activist accompanying her though she had never had anything to do with politics or elections.

After buying the puffed rice from a nearby shop, she had glanced furtively around her, slipped into the BDO’s office and gone up to the election cell on the first floor.

“I noticed a few Trinamul men lurking in front of the office but they did not recognise me because I had never walked in CPM marches,” Ayesha said.

Her clandestine adventure mirrors how Nandigram has turned from CPM bastion to Trinamul stronghold since 14 people were killed during the March 14, 2007, police firing in Sonachura village.

The bruises on Kalipada Maikap’s face explain why the CPM is looking to field greenhorns like Ayesha. The middle-aged Maikap, a “known” face to Trinamul in his capacity as CPI block committee secretary, was accosted near Nandigram College on Friday while returning after collecting his nomination form.

“The Trinamul men standing guard on the roads leading to the BDO’s office asked to see what was in my bag. When I refused, they punched me, snatched the bag and tore the nomination form,” Maikap said.

Rabin Maity, secretary of the CPM’s Nandigram zonal committee, acknowledged the party’s strategy of fielding Independents.

“We are facing threats. We don’t want our men to sacrifice their lives to contest under the party banner; so we are trying to field villagers with clean images as Independents,” Maity said.

Most hard-core local CPM activists are still in hiding, anyway. Trinamul flags now dominate Nandigram-Khejuri while the once-ubiquitous red flags have virtually disappeared along the 14km road from Nandigram Bazar to Sonachura.

Nandigram and Khejuri together account for 358 gram panchayat seats. By Saturday, the fourth day since nomination forms became available, the CPM had picked up 161 forms. Of these, just 16 were for official party candidates and the remaining 145 for Independents — 80 in Nandigram and 65 in Khejuri.

Like Ayesha, Nil Maity is a first-time candidate. He too is preparing to contest as a CPM-backed Independent, from Khodambari II gram panchayat.

The farmer from Joyenpur village said he had walked 3km along paddy fields to the Nandigram II BDO’s office, avoiding the roads that are under Trinamul vigil in both Nandigram and Khejuri.

“I had participated in several CPM marches in 2007 before the firing, so I didn’t want to take chances,” Maity said.

The CPM is arranging the nomination fees: Rs 75 for women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe gram panchayat candidates and Rs 150 for the rest.

“When I submit my nomination form and fee, I shall have to furnish a self-attested assets declaration and a photocopy of my voter I-card,” Ayesha said.

The CPM has told the candidates not to go to any photocopy shop in Nandigram with their voter I-cards as it may draw Trinamul’s attention. The party is collecting the cards from the candidates and getting photocopies made in bulk from Tamluk town, about 40km from Nandigram.

But Ayesha and Maity are wondering whether they will be able to file their nomination by the June 5 deadline. So is the CPM.

“Collecting a nomination form is easier than submitting it. We know that Trinamul’s surveillance of all the roads leading to the BDO offices is intensifying by the day,” a local CPM leader said.

“Even if these Independent candidates are successful in filing their nomination, we don’t know how many of our supporters will be able to vote on polling day.”

He said the party would wait till June 10 — the deadline for withdrawing nominations — before beginning its campaign in favour of these candidates. It doesn’t want to “out” the Ayeshas and Maitys, lest they are coerced into pulling out of the election. (Names of the nominees have been changed to protect their identity.)