Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday outlined an ambitious development plan for Nandigram, the East Midnapore constituency that propelled him to the posts of the leader of the Opposition and eventually the chief minister.
Inaugurating Durga Puja pandals in Nandigram, Suvendu hinted that he would seek to transform the rural constituency into a township in the near future.
“Let us develop Nandigram. Nandigram should no longer remain a village; it must be developed like a town,” the chief minister said.
“The detailed project report (DPR) for the Haldia-Nandigram bridge is ready, and soil testing has been completed. Once that process is over, I will take the necessary steps to move it (the process of making a town) forward. There will also be a railway line. I will transform the entire area and develop it comprehensively,” he said.
Though Suvendu did not specify whether Nandigram will be a municipal town, multiple leaders said the hint was enough to understand that the 2007 land agitation hub would be connected with Haldia and become a place of industrial development under the chief minister’s watch.
Haldia and Nandigram lie on opposite banks of the Hooghly. After taking charge as chief minister, Suvendu vowed to expedite a bridge connecting the two.
Haldia, one of Bengal’s major industrial towns, could provide an impetus to Nandigram’s development once the bridge links them.
A BJP source said Suvendu shared an emotional bond with Nandigram. He strengthened his political foothold in the constituency by winning the Assembly election in 2016 on a Trinamool Congress ticket and became a cabinet minister. In 2020, he switched to the BJP and contested the 2021 Assembly election from Nandigram, defeating then chief minister Mamata Banerjee by a slim margin. His victory over Mamata in Nandigram paved the way for his elevation as the leader of the Opposition, political observers believe.
“Nandigram was the place where Suvendu Adhikari’s political career reached a turning point, which he has always acknowledged. People of Nandigram have stood by him through thick and thin,” a BJP leader said.
This time, though Suvendu retained Bhabanipur and resigned from Nandigram, arguing that vacating Bhabanipur could have given Mamata another opportunity to contest an election, he publicly declared he would always remain a Nandigram voter and work for its people.
In the recent bypoll, Hasi Rani Rath, the mother of Suvendu’s murdered aide Chandranath, won the Nandigram Assembly seat by a margin of over 1.2 lakh votes.
Inaugurating all four Durga Puja pandals in Nandigram, Suvendu repeatedly assured residents that he would take the constituency’s development to new heights and remain connected to its soil.
“It is our responsibility to ensure happiness in every household in Nandigram. We must not allow arrogance to creep in,” he said.