Would contest from 'any seat': TMC's Abhishek Banerjee on candidature speculations

Diamond Harbour (WB): Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday dismissed speculation about his possible candidature from West Bengal's Nandigram, saying he would contest from "any seat" including Nandigram or even Darjeeling if the party decides so.

The BJP, he said, "need not think about it."

At an event at Maheshtala in his Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, the TMC national general secretary dismissed the debate as a "manufactured flutter", turning the spotlight back on internal party discipline.

"I will work as my party instructs. If the party asks me to contest from Nandigram, I will do that. If the party asks me to contest from Darjeeling, I will do that as well. I am saying this on record," he said.

Sharpening the tone, Banerjee added, "It may be Sukanta Majumdar's inner wish. Trinamool will take its internal decisions. The BJP does not have to think about where I will contest or not."

Majumdar, the Union Minister of State for Education, on Sunday claimed he had "information" that Banerjee was preparing to contest from Nandigram and was "posting loyal officers" in the district as groundwork.

"He is very keen to become the deputy CM, and contesting from Nandigram is part of that plan," the Balurghat MP said, before backtracking with a carefully worded line: "Wherever Mamata Banerjee contests, we will defeat her."

But the comment had already ignited a storm in Bengal where even an offhand remark around Nandigram can reorder the political temperature.

On Monday, Banerjee seized that cue.

"Wherever and however the party wants to utilise me, I will work accordingly," he said.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who has built his post-2021 political identity around his dramatic win in Nandigram over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, jumped in almost instantly.

"Even if Abhishek contests from here, nobody in Nandigram will vote for him," Adhikari said.

He has repeatedly framed the constituency as the BJP's "fortress", a claim TMC leaders dismiss as a mix of political bravado and insecurity.

The TMC hit back with a counter-attack that struck at the BJP's internal dynamics.

"After the Lok Sabha results, the BJP's top leadership has put Suvendu on their dislike list," TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty claimed.

"Even in Nandigram, Trinamool won the panchayat polls. Suvendu's biggest challenge is to hold the seat. And Abhishek Banerjee or Mamata Banerjee aren't even necessary, a grassroots Trinamool worker can defeat him."

The political choreography around Nandigram is rooted in its place in Bengal's modern political history.

What began in 2007 as a resistance against the Left Front government's land acquisition plan grew into a mass movement that redefined the state's political axis.

Mamata Banerjee and her then-lieutenant Adhikari emerged as the movement's faces; the TMC capitalised on the groundswell, sweeping 50 per cent of panchayat seats in 2008, winning 19 Lok Sabha seats in 2009, and finally ending the Left's 34-year rule in 2011.

Nandigram, in East Midnapore district, became more than a constituency; it became a marker of political legitimacy.

The fiercely contested 2021 battle, in which Mamata lost to Adhikari by around 1,900 votes, a result the TMC insisted was "manipulated", only deepened the symbolism.

Banerjee later returned to the Assembly through Bhawanipore with a record margin, but the "Nandigram memory" has remained a permanent fixture of Bengal's political theatre.

With the 2026 Assembly elections just months away and the SIR storm reshaping the state's political narrative, the revived speculation over Abhishek Banerjee's electoral destination has added a fresh layer of intensity.

Abhishek Banerjee neither expressed intent nor hinted at contesting from Nandigram, stressing that the decision rests entirely with the party, a stance that momentarily settled the speculation while keeping the constituency firmly in focus ahead of Bengal's 2026 Assembly polls.