Suvendu Adhikari defeats Mamata Banerjee to win Nandigram; TMC chief alleges 'cheating'

In a massive twist to the West Bengal elections, CM Mamata Banerjee has lost to ex-aide Suvendu Adhikari at Nandigram on Sunday, by a margin of 1737 votes. While the Election Commission is yet to declare the victory to Adhikari, Banerjee herself has accepted her defeat, but said that she will challenge the verdict in court. The nail-biting clincher saw Suvendu Adhikari take the lead by 4000 seats over Mamata Banerjee, but later the margin reduced to mere 6 votes, before Mamata took the lead. Banerjee has retained power in Bengal as TMC has taken the lead in 213 seats while BJP has leads in 77 seats.

"I won't do oath ceremony now due to covid. When I'll do I'll inform people.  I'll congratulate all the people for the TMC win. I will request everyone not to do any victory rally," said Mamata at a press conference in Kolkata.

Alleging cheating in Nandigram, Mamata said, "EC announced the win now they are saying something else. We fight this in court.  We will go to the constitutional bench and fight this. I'll accept the decision of the people of Nandigram. All it matters that we gained landslide victory".

The Nandigram battle

In a bid to protect her home-turf, Mamata Banerjee had battled BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in the place which had catapulted Mamata Banerjee into the CM post in 2011. Miffed by the rising influence of Banerjee's nephew - Abhishek Banerjee and IPAC poll strategist Prashant Kishor in Trinamool, Adhikari along with several other MLAs had switched to BJP. Taking the battle head-on, Banerjee had announced she will contest polls from Nandigram instead of her bastion Bhowanipore, leading to BJP fielding Adhikari. 

While Nandigram is a Trinamool bastion, it is the Adhikari family - Sisir, Suvendu, Dibyendu and Soumendu which has massive sway in the district - setting up a Mamata Vs Adhikari family battle. Amid the farmers' protest too, the Nandigram land agitation has come to the forefront, with Mamata accusing BJP of 'selling off farmers' lands to businessmen'. Exit polls too predicted a close battle with the verdict going either way.

The Nandigram poll battle saw the most high-voltage campaign as Mamata played her 'Bengal's daughter' card, while Suvendu has accused TMC of only 'promoting the nephew'. Mamata, who recently suffered an injury while campaigning in Nandigram - which she has blamed on BJP, has vowed to conduct her campaign on a wheelchair with the BJP calling it 'sympathy politics'. Mamata has also termed Adhikaris as 'Mir Jafars' while Suvendu has fearmongered that 'Bengal will become mini-Pakistan' if Mamata is re-elected.