Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari will file his nomination papers from the Nandigram today. Adhikari is pitted against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
On 10 March, West Bengal CM filed her nomination for the Nandigram assembly seat and exuded confidence of winning. "I am confident about my victory from the Nandigram assembly seat. I could have easily contested from Bhawanipur seat (which she represents).
"When I had visited Nandigram in January, there was no MLA from here as the sitting MLA had resigned. I looked at the faces of the common people and decided to contest from here," she said after filing her paper.
Banerjee had been contesting polls from the Bhawanipore constituency so far.
Nandigram assembly constituency is set for a high octane battle. Adhikari, who recently switched over to the saffron camp, called her an "outsider" to Nandigram and himself a "bhoomiputra" (son of the soil).
He had won the Nandigram seat in the 2016 assembly poll, while another TMC candidate emerged victorious from the constituency in 2011.
Adhikari had quit TMC and resigned from the assembly late last year to join BJP following differences with the state's ruling party.
Nandigram constituency mainly comprises two blocks - Nandigram I and Nandigram II - with the first having 30 per cent minority population and the second almost 15 per cent.
The election in Nandigram is slated to be held on April 1.
West Bengal will witness eight-phased Assembly polls beginning March 27. The tenure of the 16th Legislative Assembly of West Bengal will end on May 30 this year. A total of 7,34,07,832 voters will choose their representative for the 17th Legislative Assembly of West Bengal.
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