With the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections drawing near, the ruling Trinamool Congress has decided to go all out to reclaim the high-profile Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore— the seat where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suffered a narrow defeat to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in 2021.
Mamata’s loss to Adhikari, once her trusted lieutenant, by a margin of 1,956 votes had shocked the party leadership and fuelled a lingering legal and political battle. According to TMC insiders, bagging Nandigram in 2026 has become a prestige issue for the party, even though it is still unclear whether Mamata and Adhikari will face each other again on the same turf.
TMC’s All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been holding a series of organisational meetings across districts to fine-tune the party’s poll strategy. At a meeting with leaders from Barasat in North 24 Parganas and Tamluk in East Midnapore, Abhishek announced that a separate meeting will soon be convened exclusively for Nandigram, underscoring its special importance in the coming elections.
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“All branch-level leadership of the party will be present in that meeting,” said a senior TMC leader, adding that Abhishek’s move signals there is “no room for mistakes” this time.
In his address, Abhishek stressed the need for leaders to be more active at the grassroots level. He urged party workers to hold continuous public meetings on the issue of central deprivation, telling people every day that “the Centre is not giving money, the state is giving money.”
He also gave clear instructions to strengthen internal structures— youth presidents should not be older than 40 and the same individual cannot simultaneously hold the posts of Panchayat Samiti president and block president.
On the language movement programme in the backdrop of alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking workers in BJP-ruled state under the guise of crackdown against Bangladeshi infiltrators, Abhishek asked leaders to take to the field with more workers and keep the agitation alive at the block level.
Senior leaders including MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar and former minister Jyotipriya Mallick attended the Barasat meeting. Afterward, Kakali stressed unity, saying, “If we stay in one place, there will be problems. But we are all one. We will work together.” Mallick added, “There is no chaos in the party. Whatever the party decides, everyone will follow it.”
Abhishek himself highlighted the importance of joint leadership, telling leaders, “Everyone is senior. Everyone’s opinion should be listened to with importance. We have to move forward with everyone.”
For the TMC, the battle for Nandigram is about more than just one seat— it is about political symbolism and revenge. With Mamata’s shock defeat in 2021 still fresh in memory and the High Court case over the results unresolved, the party has put the constituency under “special surveillance”.
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