West Bengal: Abhishek Banerjee walks 20km in padayatra to Nandigram

A month after undertaking the 60-day long public outreach programme, Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee walked 20 km on Thursday to reach Nandigram in southern West Bengal.

Nandigram had witnessed bloodshed during the Left regime, when locals had protested and resisted against forced land acquisition for a proposed project.

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The region is considered a stronghold of Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s MLA from Nandigram, and Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. Banerjee’s visit is politically significant for the party, that’s on an intense campaign with the rural polls awaited.

Banerjee walked from Chandipur to Nandigram, interacting with supporters on the way during the five-hour journey, covering 27 gram panchayats in the Purba Medinipur district.

“I believe this padayatra, from Chandipur to Nandigram, has shown the future of Bengal’s politics. The political party, which banks on religious divisiveness, will be shown their place by the peaceful land of Nandigram,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee claimed that the BJP is going to lose the five states, where the elections are to take place in future. He added that the general elections will see the BJP – Trinamool’s political opponent in the state – losing power at the Centre too.