Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
There is a common sentiment that plays in Kolkata: time moves relatively slower. But that was not to be on a politically charged day in Bengal, when the needle swung rapidly. And at the heart of it was Nandigram.
The symbolism was not lost.
While the pieces were being moved from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Howrah, the battlefield lay 150 kilometres away in the far-flung South Bengal town.
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Nandigram had once made Mamata, helping topple the powerful Left government. Now, it has unmade her. She is left without a candidate in the upcoming bypolls, and the one she said she would back from the Congress was arrested moments later.
And between then and now stands Suvendu Adhikari.
Her aide-in-chief, who helped Mamata spring up the ladder during the Nandigram uprising nearly two decades ago, is now hastening her descent as her bete noire.
All this happened on a day when her party’s 28-year legacy was at stake. The Election Commission froze the grass with two flowers symbol — the one Mamata had once hand-drawn — along with the party’s name.
And the key challenger to the Trinamool’s name and symbol is the other faction, which goes by “Bhalo Trinamool” in Bengal, translating to “good guys”. It is led by Ritabrata Banerjee, who would have been barely voting age when Mamata walked out of Congress to form the party she is now wrestling over.
Now, Ritabrata is her key challenger.
Mamata’s camp has been given the football player symbol, while Ritabrata’s camp has been given the envelope.
To sum it up, before untangling the threads of an eventful day: Mamata lost her party name and symbol — though both remain up for grabs depending on how the EC adjudicates the tug-of-war between her and Ritabrata, alongside a legal battle by the aggrieved party in the Supreme Court.
She also lost her Nandigram candidate, and even the Congress candidate she said she would support.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
