The BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, who beat West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram in the last assembly election, wants a rematch -- this time in Bhabanipur, her current constituency. In the first list of the BJP for the Bengal election announced today, Adhikari has been named as the candidate from the seat in Kolkata, where Banerjee had moved after her defeat in Nandigram in 2021. The Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly will also contest from Nandigram.
It is not yet known where Banerjee will contest from. But there is speculation that she might contest again from Bhabanipur, which has sent her to the state assembly thrice since 2011 - the year when Bengal voted out the CPM and welcomed Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
Nandigram is the town that had catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011. Back then, Adhikari was by her side as she campaigned for land rights for farmers and later became the MLA who represented the constituency in the state assembly.
But in 2021, when the BJP weaponised him against the Chief Minister, Banerjee, who had never backed down from a fight, took the battle in Nandigram, confident that the area will not turn away from its favourite daughter.
But Adhikari pitched her as an "outsider" and in a cliffhanger of a prestige battle, Banerjee lost by a margin of 1,956 votes even as her party swept the state, coming back to power for a third straight term.
That Nandigram was firmly backing Adhikari became clear the next year too when the BJP swept the election to a cooperative body.
Later, the Chief Minister moved to Bhabanipur and contested the by-election, winning it with a margin of over 50,000 votes.
This time again the placement of Adhikari - who ahead of the last election had said he wanted to put the word "former" before the Chief Minister's name - has sent a clear message.
On multiple occasions, Adhikari has been heard saying, "I defeated her in Nandigram; this time I will defeat her in Bhabanipur as well. I will make her a former Chief Minister by a margin of 50,000 votes".
In the recent voter list revision in Bengal, Banerjee's Bhabanipur constituency has recorded one of the highest voter deletions in the state, logging nearly four times more removals than Suvendu Adhikari's Nandigram, showed the constituency-wise data released by the Election Commission last week.
Data showed that Bhabanipur in south Kolkata, widely regarded as Banerjee's pocket borough, recorded 44,787 deletions from the 2,06,295 voters listed in January 2025, while Nandigram saw 10,599 deletions from 2,78,212 voters.
Bengal will vote in two phases, on April 23 and April 29, and the counting of votes will take place on May 4.
