Congress Nandigram nominee alleges police pressured him to withdraw candidature

The Congress’s Nandigram bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan on Wednesday alleged that the police, before arresting him, had pressured him to withdraw the nomination and offered to fulfil his demands in return.

Pradhan made this claim while talking to reporters after he was released from jail following securing interim bail a day ago from the Calcutta High Court in six criminal cases lodged in 2007.

He was arrested in connection with the old cases soon after the Mamata Banerjee faction of the TMC announced its support to the Congress for the October 6 by-election.

Pradhan, who was received by a large number of party workers outside the Haldia Sub-Correctional Home in Purba Medinipur district, said he would immediately start campaigning for the bypoll.

“I will begin campaigning from today. There is not much time left. The people of Nandigram want the son of the soil, not someone from outside, to win. I am confident of securing victory,” he told reporters.

Campaigning for the bypoll ends on October 4, while counting of votes will take place on October 9.

Pradhan alleged that plainclothes police personnel picked him up from Chandipur on September 18 and took him to a hotel in Mandarmani with his eyes covered.

“After campaigning throughout the day, I was resting in Chandipur when suddenly police in civil clothes forcibly picked me up. They tied a gamcha over my eyes in the car. I could not see anything. However, I could make out that I was being taken towards Mandarmani,” Pradhan told reporters.

The Congress leader alleged that he was taken to a hotel room in a lift with his eyes still covered.

“I was told: ‘Tell us what you want. You will get whatever you want by tomorrow. Just withdraw your candidature’,” Pradhan alleged.

“There were IPS officers and a DSP there. I told them that I am in politics for my ideology and cannot do this,” the Congress leader said, further alleging that he was taken back to Chandipur around 2.30-3 am, again with his eyes covered, and subsequently arrested.

The high court on Tuesday granted him relief till October 20, allowing him to campaign for the bypoll to the Nandigram Assembly seat, vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari who chose to retain Bhabanipur, which he had also won in the state polls earlier this year.

Pradhan claimed he was kept in jail so that he could not reach Nandigram.

“The land movement (of 2007) that gave Suvendu Adhikari recognition, and the case in which he himself is also involved, was used to deliberately and systematically harass me,” he alleged.

Adhikari was in the Trinamool Congress in 2007. He joined the BJP months before the 2021 assembly election and became the CM this year. Pradhan said he had initially feared that he would be killed when he was taken away.

He also questioned the development in Nandigram, alleging that the area had seen little development beyond a few concrete roads.

“People here still drink water from ponds. Regime change happened over the bodies of people. There are still 10 people missing. Why is there an early election here? Because he (Adhikari) has left Nandigram,” Pradhan alleged.

He also questioned the BJP’s decision to field Hasirani Rath, mother of Chandranath Rath, an aide of Adhikari who was killed, from Nandigram.

“Hasirani is a mother. We respect mothers. But the BJP has fielded an outsider here. Why? Was there no son of the soil here who deserves the ticket?” he said.

On the state Government challenging his interim bail in the Supreme Court, Pradhan described the criminal cases against him as false and fabricated.

Referring to a statement by Adhikari that his party (BJP) knew how to conduct an election, Pradhan said it amounted to a threat.

“We have to protect democracy,” the Congress leader said.