Trinamool, BJP Trade Charges, Hold Counter Events On Nandigram Divas

On the 14th Nandigram Divas on Wednesday both ruling TMC and opposition BJP held programmes at the place in East Midnapore district, paid glowing tributes to those who died in the anti-land accquisition movement, placed wreaths at their memorial and accused each other of having betrayed the farmers of the area who had faced atrocities allegedly by the police and CPI-M cadre.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to the Facebook and posted in Bengali "On Nandigram Divas my tribute to all who laid down their lives. To all martyrs across the globe".

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who is also the Nandigram lawmaker, tweeted "Will never forget those who lost their lives for the Nandigram movement & those who resisted the mighty Left Front regime's autocratic tactics; that ultimately changed West Bengal's political landscape."

Ms Banerjee had sided with the farmers and Mr Adhikari, then her protege, was among those who assisted her in the movement by Bhoomi Rakha Committee against the setting up of a proposed special economic zone on fertile farmland of the region.

Senior TMC MLA Tapas Roy and party state general secretary Kunal Ghosh placed wreaths at the martyrs column at Gokulnagar in Nandigram and criticised Adhikari, who is the BJP MLA from Nandigram, for "betraying the people of the constituency by aligning with communal BJP and by weaving the narrative which causes schism in the society among different communities."

Mr Roy, the deputy chief whip of West Bengal assembly, said "Let's wait for the high court judgement on the petition seeking recounting of Nandigram poll results. Adhikari will be dislodged from Nandigram"

Ms Banerjee had taken on Adhikari at Nandigram and lost though she steered her party, the TMC to a landslide victory in the state in the April-May assembly election. TMC had gone to the court demanding recounting of votes in Nandigram.

Mr Roy also accused Adhikari of letting loose a reign of terror against Trinamool supporters in Nandigram before and after the poll.

"You stabbed your mother Mamata Banerjee from the back. Nandigram will not accept you any more," he said and claimed that in any future poll the TMC supremo will win by more than 22,000 margin in the area.

The two TMC leaders recalled the "barbaric massacre in the name of new dawn" by CPI-M which was in power in 2007.

After the TMC programme, Mr Adhikari led a rally in the area under the banner Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee (Committee against land acquisition), which had taken part in the protests by the Nandigram farmers and said that those who had been involved in the movement are now with BJP and not with TMC and "the root lies embedded deep within".

Before Adhikari placed floral tributes, the memorial was washed with Ganga water by BJP workers "to purify the spot of the touch by TMC".

"The TMC supremo has forgotten the martyrs. She used Nandigram to get votes and come to power. Now she is not concerned about the plight of farmers, she is only concerned about her well being," Adhikari said.

"Had L K Advaniji not come to help, had Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh not come to help, TMC couldn't have entered into Nandigram. BJP MPs stalled Parliament for over two months and you were probably having sandwiches at that time ," he said apparently referring to Banerjee.

Harping on his defeating the chief minister in the last assembly election, Adhikari said "As someone who had defeated Lakshman Seth (former CPI-M MP) by over I lakh votes during CPI-M rule I am ready to give a fight to the evil forces when people are with me."

Ms Banerjee had gone on to become to chief minister of the state for the third consecutive time by dint of her party's landslide win. She was elected to the House from her home constituency Bhabanipur in a by-poll in September.

Adhikari alleged that hundreds of false cases were framed against him and BJP activists in Nandigram and nearby Khejuri area and said "We will ensure that a CBI or high level SIT probe by the union home ministry is ordered into the framing of these cases".

Hitting out at TMC, from which he had defected to BJP, Adhikari said people in Nandigram should not be scared of any threat by the ruling party as "the country knows about the terror by it".

He said Union Home Minister Amit Shah is on the side of those who had suffered in the violence by the ruling party in West Bengal and chief ministers of BJP ruled states had condemned the attacks by TMC after the poll counting.

In January 2007 a farmers' protest had erupted in Nandigram against the Left Front government's proposed SEZ by Salim group of Indonesia.

Fourteen persons were killed in police firing on demonstrators against land acquisition at Nandigram on March 14 that year which is observed as Krishak Divas by Trinamool.

On November 10 the same year CPI-M had tried to recapture the area calling it 'Operation Sunshine' and allegedly opened fire on a group of opposition workers.

The anti-land acquisition movement had catapulted TMC to the forefront of Bengal politics and Banerjee, its firebrand supremo, to power in West Bengal.

The party went on to win 19 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll and wrested power from the Left Front in the state after 34 years in the 2011 Assembly election.

Since 2012 TMC observes November 10 as 'Nandigram Divas'.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)