Nandigram Election Result 2021: Suvendu Adhikari wins; TMC seeks re-counting
Nandigram Election Results: In a closely fought battle, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee admitted loss to Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Suvendu Adhikari.
BJP rally in Nandigram. (File Pic) | Photo Credit: IANS
Key Highlights
- The Trinamool Congress is leading against the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal.
- Mamata Banerjee admitted her loss to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari, often called the strongman of Nandigram, beat Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with the latter admitting her loss. The former Mamata-ally beat his mentor in a closely fought battle after a day of see-sawing fortunes finally came to an end.
The poll battle in West Bengal’s Nandigram was being closely watched across the country as former TMC heavyweight Adhikari, who is now in the BJP fold, had promised to defeat CM Mamata Banerjee by over 50,000 votes from his stronghold. It wasn't as one-sided as predicted but the final hurrah belonged to Adhikari.
The trends emerging from West Bengal showed the TMC in a clear lead against the BJP with CM Banerjee's party coming back to power despite a major push by the latter to dent her candidature for the top spot. The battle was even more fierce in Nandigram where Banjerjee has taken on ally-turned-foe Adhikari and the strongman gave a tough fight to her former mentor.
Earlier, the Election Commission data showed that even though Adhikari was leading with 34,430 votes, CM Banerjee had clipped his margin by a good number registering 30,655 votes for herself. They had 50.8%-45.23% of the total votes counted.
In the morning, after the third round of counting, Adhikari was ahead with a total of 23,295 votes against a total of 15,294 votes recorded for Mamata Banerjee. CPI (M) candidate Minakshi Mukherjee was a distant third in the counting with 1,278 votes so far.
All eyes were on the Nandigram Assembly in the south-west Bengal region as the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had gone all guns out in the constituency that was one of the key turning points for her when she had ousted the Left government from power in a David vs Goliath contest over a decade ago.
The BJP top brass had also campaigned robustly in the region with Union Home Minister Amit Shah conducting massive rallies in Nandigram where large crowds had gathered. Shah had claimed that the saffron party would be victorious with a huge margin both in Nandigram and in the state of West Bengal as well.