When Mamata Banerjee landed in Delhi in May 2009 with her contingent of 19 Lok Sabha members to join the Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre, the only MP to get a ride on the special plane that brought her to the national Capital for the oath ceremony was Sisir Adhikary.
Elected from the Kanthi seat in Purba Medinipur, the first-term MP had become a symbol of Trinamool's battle against the Left Front regime in West Bengal. His son Suvendu Adhikari had won from the adjoining LS seat, Tamluk, which included the Nandigram assembly constituency.
Nandigram was at the core of Mamata Banerjee's ascent to power.
The sleepy, fertile, prosperous village with rolling green fields had exploded on March 14, 2007, when 14 villagers were killed in police firing.
The villagers were protesting against the Left Front government's plans to acquire land to set up a chemical hub.
Coming up months after the Singur agitation over land acquisition, the Nandigram protest turned into a violent resistance movement that lasted well over a year-and-a-half, loosening the grip of the seven-term Left Front regime in the state.
It also spun Trinamool, decimated in the 2006 assembly polls (with CPM and allies winning 235 of 294 seats), back into business.
Mamata Banerjee -- who had already taken up the cause of farmers in Singur and succeeded in overturning the government's land acquisition move -- led the Opposition forces from the front in Nandigram.
In Singur, the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had invited Tata Motors to set up its small car factory in a bid to restart industrialisation in the state.
Bengal, once an industrial hub, had seen the flight of industry and jobs for some years. In a hurry to restore industry and development, the Left Front government had acquired highly fertile land for it in a hurry. A section of farmers who had to part with their land were protesting when Mamata Banerjee took up their cause and challenged the state government.
After a 26-day hunger strike by her, and a farmers' agitation that caught national attention, the government had to back down, Tatas had to shift the project to Gujarat, when most of the factory had been built.
With this as the backdrop, Nandigram witnessed violent anti-government protests.
If the dismantling of the Left Front regime in Bengal began at Nandigram, it was also the place that anchored Mamata Banerjee's political career in the state, giving her three terms as Chief Minister.
Sisir and Suvendu Adhikari - the father-son duo and local politicians -- played Banerjee's lieutenants as she led the charge in Nandigram in 2007.
With years, empowered by Banerjee, Adhikari grew into the Purba Medinipur satrap of Trinamool. He was not only made minister in state cabinet but also given organisational charge adjoining districts.
By the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Adhikari was the Trinamool strongman in the region with ambitions of making it even bigger.
But with his name appearing in the list of Trinamool leaders allegedly involved in the Saradha and Narada scams, Adhikari's discomfort was growing like many others in the Trinamool.
Party bigwigs like Mukul Roy, Sovan Chatterjee, and others figuring in the scam list, switched to the BJP, which was trying to carve out a foothold in states where it barely had a toehold.
With not much resources on the ground, BJP used the organisationally strong Trinamool leaders to build its own strength.
With many former Trinamool members on their side, the BJP won 18 out of the state's 42 seats in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Working on that template, the BJP won a historic 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Adhikari jumped ship in December 2020, months before the state polls, giving BJP the heft it needed.
He fought from Nandigram, his family's backyard, defeated Banerjee by a slim margin, and gained political power in BJP. Despite being a newcomer, he became Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
With that change in the political dynamics of Bengal, battleground Nandigram has taken centre-stage.
The area is now set to witness a new twirl. If Banerjee's protege Suvendu Adhikari contested against her and won in the last elections, on April 23, Nandigram will see a similar same story unfolding, with new players. Trinamool has fielded Pabitra Kar against Adhikari in Nandigram.
One of Adhikari's three trusted aides in Nandigram who had followed him to the BJP, Kar had joined Trinamool on the morning of March 17 and his name was declared as a contestant the same evening, when the list was announced.
BJP insiders say it will be a cakewalk for Adhikari in Nandigram, pitted against a block level leader.
Trinamool sources, however, say it is a strategic move by party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to break up Adhikari's core team and split the Hindu voters in Nandigram, where communal polarisation has been high since Banerjee's aide donned the saffron scarf.
The spillover from Nandigram will be played out in Bhabanipur constituency on April 29.
In the second and final phase of the Bengal elections Adhikari, fighting a second seat, will take on Mamata Banerjee in her stronghold after a five-year gap. Khela hobe (Game on).
