Mamata Banerjee suffered a fresh setback on Friday, and the day did not end there. Her Trinamool faction lost its only candidate in the high profile Nandigram bypoll. Hours later, the Congress candidate she had just decided to support was arrested by West Bengal police. The developments have added a dramatic new turn to an already tense contest.
What happened to Mamata Banerjee’s candidate in Nandigram?
Sanchita Pradhan Dey had been named as the Mamata Banerjee camp’s candidate on September 13. On Friday afternoon, she met West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at the state secretariat, Nabanna. Her husband, Satyajit, accompanied her. Soon after, she withdrew her nomination.
This left Mamata Banerjee’s faction without a candidate in Nandigram. Following the withdrawal, Banerjee held a press conference at her Kalighat residence. She announced that her faction would back the Congress nominee in Nandigram and in the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam. She said the move was being made in the wider national interest.
Why was the Congress candidate arrested soon after?
Within hours of Mamata Banerjee’s announcement, Congress candidate Milan Pradhan was arrested by West Bengal police. The arrest relates to an old, previously registered case. Reports have described it as an alleged murder case dating back some years.
Congress spokesperson Mita Chakraborty strongly criticised the timing. She said Pradhan was arrested “within just a few hours” of Banerjee’s support announcement, and questioned whether the government wanted “autocracy or democracy” in the country. The Congress has framed the arrest as an attempt to intimidate the opposition just as the party gained fresh backing in the seat. There has been no detailed official statement yet from the West Bengal police explaining the specific circumstances or timing of the arrest
Why did the Election Commission freeze TMC’s name and symbol?
The Trinamool Congress has been split into two camps for months. One is led by Mamata Banerjee. The other is led by Ritabrata Banerjee, backed by senior leader Arup Roy. Each side claims to be the real Trinamool Congress.
The dispute began over organisational elections within the party. The Ritabrata faction argued that TMC’s national working committee, last elected on February 12, 2022, had lapsed after three years under the party constitution. It claimed the backing of 65 of the party’s 80 MLAs and said it had since held fresh internal elections. The Mamata Banerjee camp rejected this claim.
On Thursday, September 17, the Election Commission froze the “All India Trinamool Congress” name and the twin flower and grass symbol. On Friday, it allotted temporary identities to both camps ahead of the October 6 bypolls.
Who else is contesting the Nandigram bypoll?
With Mamata Banerjee’s faction stepping aside, the Nandigram contest has changed shape. Here is where things stand:
- BJP: Fielded Hashirani Rath. She is the mother of Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead earlier this year.
- Democratic Trinamool Congress (Ritabrata faction): Fielded Mohammad Eteshamul Haque.
- Congress: Now backed by Mamata Banerjee’s camp, though the seat had not traditionally been a Congress stronghold.
- CPI: Shanti Gopal Giri is also in the fray.
The bypoll became necessary after Suvendu Adhikari won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the 2026 assembly elections. He chose to retain Bhabanipur, Mamata Banerjee’s own traditional seat, and gave up Nandigram. Voting is set for October 6. Counting will happen on October 9.
Why does this matter for West Bengal politics?
This comes months after the BJP swept the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, ending Trinamool’s fifteen year run in power. Mamata Banerjee lost Bhabanipur to Suvendu Adhikari, her former protege. Since then, the party she built has been fracturing from within, and Friday’s events show how personal and unpredictable that fracture has become.
The Ritabrata camp’s majority claim remains unverified independently. Around ₹440 crore in TMC accounts were separately frozen earlier this year after a complaint from that faction alleging possible misuse of funds. Opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have this year raised broader concerns about the Election Commission’s neutrality in West Bengal, which the EC has denied.
Opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have separately raised concerns this year about the Election Commission’s neutrality in West Bengal and Assam, following the BJP’s assembly election wins there. The Election Commission has consistently denied any bias and maintains that its symbol freeze decisions follow settled precedent from past party splits.
For Mamata Banerjee, the loss of her Nandigram candidate is symbolic as much as practical. Nandigram was the seat where her political battle with Suvendu Adhikari first became a national story. Watching her own faction step back from that very seat, and lean on Congress instead, marks a notable shift in her party’s fortunes.
What happens next?
The Election Commission’s naming of both factions is an interim arrangement. A final call on who inherits the original Trinamool Congress identity is still pending. Meanwhile, questions are mounting over Milan Pradhan’s arrest, with Congress expected to raise the issue formally with the Election Commission. Campaigning for the October 6 Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls continues, with results due on October 9.
Note: Details of the case against Milan Pradhan have not been officially detailed by West Bengal police at the time of publication.