Sanchita Dey Pradhan, the candidate of the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress, withdrew her nomination for the Nandigram Assembly bypoll on Friday.
She decided after meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at the state secretariat, Nabanna. She later withdrew her nomination at the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s office in Haldia.
Soon after, Mamata Banerjee announced support for Congress candidate Milan Pradhan at a press conference at her Kalighat residence in South Kolkata. She said her faction would not contest Nandigram and would back its “sister party, Congress”.
“We will not contest in Nandigram. We will support our sister party, Congress. This will strengthen the INDIA bloc,” Mamata said.
She said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had called her on Thursday night. “We are all together; we will fight together. We will support all normal alliances. We will support our sister parties,” she added.
Mamata said the faction would decide later on the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll in Murshidabad.
The developments followed the Election Commission’s decision to assign new names and symbols to the two rival Trinamool factions.
The Mamata-led group received the name Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and the Football Player symbol. The rival faction received Democratic Trinamool Congress and the Envelope symbol.
The ECI had earlier frozen the original All India Trinamool Congress name and its traditional Flowers & Grass symbol.
Political observers described the Nandigram development as a possible face-saving exercise, though that interpretation remains their assessment.
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