The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (November 10, 2025) competed to pay tributes to Shaheed Diwas to people who were killed in a firing incident in Nandigram in 2007.
Violence had erupted in Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district in 2007 amidst severe public protests against forcible land acquisition for a petrochemical project being taken up by the erstwhile Left-Front government.
On Monday (November 10), the Trinamool and BJP carried out tribute programmes at Nandigram’s Shaheed Bedi — the memorial constructed in memory of those who died on November 10. Leader of Opposition of West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA from Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari, offered his tributes, while soon after, a delegation of Trinamool Congress comprising Minister Snehasis Chakraborty and local leadership paid homage at the memorial.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to X to pay her tributes on the occasion of Nandigram Shaheed Diwas, writing ‘Bhulte pari nijer naam, bhulbo nako Nandigram,’ (I may forget my own name, but I will never forget Nandigram).
However, Mr. Adhikari while addressing presspersons at Nandigram today, said that he ‘made a mistake’ supporting Ms Banerjee’s ascent to power in 2011.
“I have always said very clearly — real parivartan (change) did not happen in 2011. We made a mistake in supporting a dynastic, corrupt, vindictive leader. We had a hand in her getting elected as Chief Minister. We admit we made a mistake. [The BJP] will bring in real change with the people,” the LoP said.
Notably, Mr. Adhikari was one of the most prominent faces of the movement against land acquisition at Nandigram at the time and a heavyweight leader of the Trinamool. The Trinamool came to power a few years after the Nandigram violence, with party supremo Mamata Banerjee emerging as West Bengal’s Chief Minister in 2011 with promises of ‘parivartan’ (change) from the 34-year-long Left regime.
In the Assembly polls of 2021, the incumbent Mr. Adhikari won the Assembly seat at Nandigram for the first time under the banner of the BJP, against Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a high-voltage electoral contest between two former party colleagues.
On Monday (November 10), the BJP MLA also accused the Chief Minister of depriving the ‘shahid’ (martyr) families of Nandigram of pending compensation benefits allegedly on grounds of attending Mr Adhikari’s BJP rallies in 2021.
“In 2021, after a rally at Nandigram where [Mamata Banerjee] announced she would be contesting from there, the District Magistrate disbursed the payments to the families. But because four of them did not attend Mamata’s rally that day and came with me, they didn’t get compensation,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Trinamool leaders also launched verbal attacks at the BJP, with Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee taking to social media taking jabs at the ‘zamindars of Delhi’.
“The face of the oppressor has only changed, the oppression remains the same… Where once the Left Front relied on covert, “SCIENTIFIC RIGGING” the present regime resorts to SILENT INVISIBLE RIGGING. Bengal taught the Left Front a lesson it will never forget, today we send the same message to the zamindars of Delhi. Bengal will resist, relentlessly and resolutely,” Mr. Banerjee said in his social media tribute on the occasion of Nandigram Shaheed Diwas.
Published – November 11, 2025 05:46 pm IST
