NEW DELHI: The Congress and TMC on Friday mounted a joint attack on the ruling BJP following the arrest of Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the upcoming Nandigram bypoll in West Bengal.Both parties pointed to two key factors surrounding Pradhan’s arrest: that it stemmed from an old case, and that it occurred just hours after Mamata Banerjee announced her TMC faction’s support for the Congress in the October 6 byelection.Mamata Banerjee slammed the arrest as the BJP’s “usual formula,” questioning the sudden revival of an old case right after she pledged support to the Congress.“The timing raises serious questions and is the usual BJP formula: dig out an old case. But why now? Just after we announced support to the Congress! The BJP’s politics of vendetta and atrocities show a clear pattern. With manipulation, with vote loot, with intimidation the Election Agency-BJP partnership is killing democracy every day,” the former West Bengal chief minister wrote on X.
Mamata Banerjee X post
Congress MP and Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi described the arrest as a “political revenge” by the BJP.“The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan for the Nandigram by-election is no coincidence—it is political revenge, the murder of democracy. The BJP has no faith in fair elections—that’s why it wants to cling to power sometimes through vote theft, sometimes through stealing governments, and sometimes through stealing parties,” Rahul Gandhi said.
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“They don’t want to contest elections; they want to end the electoral fight altogether. The Congress will neither fear nor bow down. We will fight—and we will win,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi X post
Mamata Banerjee extended her support to the Congress after her faction’s candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, unexpectedly withdrew her nomination following a meeting with West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari earlier in the day, just a day ahead of the Saturday withdrawal deadline.The Nandigram bypoll was necessitated after Adhikari vacated the seat to retain Bhowanipore, where he had defeated Banerjee in her traditional bastion. tHE BJP has fielded Hasirani Rath, whose son Chandranath Rath—a close aide to Adhikari—was shot dead in May.Votes will be counted on October 9.