From His Turf To Her Fort: Big Signal In Suvendu Adhikari's Bhabanipur Dare

He defeated his former boss on his turf. This time, he has come to hers and thrown a challenge. Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, is the BJP's candidate in Purba Medinipur's Nandigram and south Kolkata's Bhabanipur.

Adhikari defeated Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram last time, and now challenges her in Bhabanipur, a seat she has won thrice.

This is a story of a lieutenant who once moved mountains for his leader, before he switched sides and became her bitter rival. The lieutenant is spirited, but his former boss, a firebrand leader who trounced the mighty Communist regime in Bengal, is as much the streetfighter that she was decades back. This fight is the highlight of this election, and this time it will be fought on both rural and urban battlegrounds.

The Nandigram agitation powered Mamata Banerjee's 2011 campaign

The Crossing Of Paths

2007: CPM is in power in Bengal, and the late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is the Chief Minister. In the state polls held a year back, the ruling alliance won 235 seats in the 294-member Assembly. The Trinamool finished a distant second with just 30 seats in its kitty. At the time, a prediction that the Left is losing the next election would be laughed off.

But about 130 km from Kolkata, a protest is brewing, and this agitation would prove to be the Left's undoing. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led regime, determined to get more industries to Bengal, planned a chemical hub in the area. But local farmers protested against the land acquisitions.

A front called the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee was formed. Multiple groups gathered on this platform. These included radical left outfits, the BJP, and a Trinamool-backed front. Sisir Adhikari, a former Union Minister and Suvendu Adhikari's father, was the convener of this committee. On March 14, 2007, 14 protesting farmers were killed in police firing, sparking massive outrage across the country.

Mamata Banerjee rode the wave of protests. And by her side was a 37-year-old first-time MLA, Suvendu Adhikari.

In the 2011 Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress would win 184 seats, ending the three-decade rule of the Communists. And she would not forget the lieutenants, including Suvendu Adhikari, who stood with her when the going was tough.

The Meteoric Rise

Adhikari started his political journey with the Congress and was first elected a councillor in the Kanthi municipality in 1995. He switched to the Trinamool after Banerjee founded the party in 1998. He was elected to the Assembly in the 2006 state polls.

Impressed by his organisational capabilities during the Nandigram movement, Banerjee entrusted Adhikari with the charge of Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Bankura districts.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, which showed the wind was blowing in favour of Trinamool, Adhikari was elected from Tamluk. He retained the seat in 2014 before vacating it after winning the Nandigram seat in the 2016 Assembly election. Mamata Banerjee gave him charge of the Transport Ministry. At one point, Suvendu Adhikari was considered the second-most powerful figure within the Trinamool Congress, with a strong hold on rural Bengal and organisational skills that would reap dividends for Mamata Banerjee in elections.

The Parting Of Ways

It was good while it lasted. And then it didn't. Four years after taking over as minister, Adhikari resigned as MLA and minister in the middle of the Covid pandemic. He then quit the Trinamool Congress. The chatter in power corridors indicated that Adhikari was not happy with the growing prominence of Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee's nephew and now the Number 2 in the Trinamool, within the party. Also, Prashant Kishor had started working with Mamata Banerjee on Trinamool's campaigns, and his growing role in the party's decision-making processes is learnt to have peeved Adhikari.

The Medinipur strongman, once fiercely loyal to Mamata Banerjee, felt sidelined and started looking out. The BJP was waiting in the wings. After decades of unsuccessful attempts to emerge as a formidable force in Bengal, the BJP had found its man. Shortly after his Trinamool exit, Adhikari joined the BJP at Home Minister Amit Shah's rally on December 19, 2020.

The Trinamool leadership had reached out to Adhikari after his resignation, but as talks broke down, Mamata Banerjee had said, "After profiting from the party for 10 years... to hobnob with this and that party... I will not tolerate such people" and asked her party's leaders to "close the chapter".

A Bitter Rivalry

Camaraderie, when poisoned, leads to bitter rivalries. Since leaving Trinamool, Adhikari and Banerjee have traded barbs. While the BJP leader has accused his former boss of minority appeasement and encouraging rampant corruption, Banerjee has said Adhikari practises communal politics and has brought an "outsider" political force to Bengal.

The rivalry played out in the 2021 Assembly polls, when the two leaders clashed in Nandigram. For Trinamool, this was a prestige battle, and for Adhikari, a test for his clout. In the initial rounds, Mamata Banerjee led the contest. But the momentum shifted in the later rounds, and Adhikari was declared the winner by a slim margin of less than 2,000 votes.

Mamata Banerjee rejected the decision and alleged poll malpractices. She said the returning officer was threatened. The Election Commission, however, denied such charges and stood by the result.

A long-drawn-out legal battle followed after Mamata Banerjee challenged the result in the courts.

The 2026 Fight

The BJP's move to field Adhikari in both Nandigram and Bhabanipur is a big signal. While the party has not officially named a Chief Minister candidate for the Bengal polls, fielding Adhikari in two seats is clearly an endorsement of his leadership in the poll campaign. Also significant is the choice of seats. Nandigram is Adhikari's turf, his home ground.

But, Bhabanipur is a message and not just because it is Mamata Banerjee's constituency. Adhikari has long been seen as a heavyweight in rural Bengal's political landscape. Bringing him to the Kolkata arena signals the BJP leadership's attempt to project him as a leader with wide appeal across the state's many regions.

It is also an open challenge to Banerjee, who has dominated South Kolkata's electoral battlefield for decades now. Before she became Chief Minister and vacated the seat, Mamata Banerjee won the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat six times in a row, and this was when Trinamool was not a formidable force in the state.

As Chief Minister, the South Kolkata area has been Mamata Banerjee's bastion, irrespective of who Trinamool fields. Adhikari's candidature here is a direct challenge to the fiery Banerjee, and the biggest contest of this election.