Early Times Report
Nandigram (WB), May 24: Bouyed by the BJP’s emphatic win in the Falta Assembly repoll, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday set a similar victory target for his party in a bypoll to the Nandigram seat he resigned from as MLA after choosing to retain the Bhabanipur constituency. In his first visit to Nandigram as chief minister, where he served as a three-term MLA and called home, Adhikari reassured his supporters that despite vacating the seat, he remained firmly rooted in his political home turf.
Addressing a packed felicitation rally, he asked his supporters if they could replicate in Nandigram a victory margin similar to Falta, where the BJP won by more than one lakh votes. “Can you give us a Falta-like margin in Nandigram too?” he asked, triggering loud cheers from his supporters. His remarks came hours after the BJP’s landslide victory in Falta that further strengthened the party’s post-election quest to consolidate power after ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in Bengal earlier this month. Polling 1,49,666 votes, the BJP’s Debangshu Panda defeated his nearest rival, the CPI(M)’s Sambhu Nath Kurmi, by a margin of 1,09,021 votes. Kurmi secured 40,645 votes while the Congress’ Abdur Razzak Molla finished third with 10,084 votes. TMC’s Jahangir Khan, once among the most talked-about faces of the Falta campaign, slipped to fourth place with just 7,783 votes and forfeited his deposit. Adhikari, who contested and won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the 2026 assembly elections, later vacated Nandigram in compliance with constitutional provisions requiring legislators to retain only one seat.
His decision paved the way for a bypoll in the constituency.
At the rally in Nandigram on Sunday, Adhikari sought to allay concerns among supporters over his exit as MLA, repeatedly emphasising that giving up the seat would not weaken his association with the area.
“I left one seat only because the Constitution requires it. But don’t think I have moved away from you. Your Suvendu is with you and will remain with you,” he told the gathering. |
