Mamata reaches out to TMC veteran Akhil Giri as it weighs local face for Nandigram bypoll

The move comes at a particularly difficult juncture for the TMC, which lost power to the BJP in the May assembly elections after 15 years in office.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's outreach to party veteran Akhil Giri has set off fresh speculation that it may be weighing him as a candidate for the Nandigram bypoll, as it seeks to reclaim political ground in a constituency that has come to define both its rise and subsequent decline.

The former chief minister spoke to Giri over the phone and later asked him to meet her at her Kalighat residence on Saturday, according to a TMC leader from the Mamata Banerjee camp.

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The development has fuelled speculation that the TMC is considering Giri for the October 6 bypoll, although the party has made no formal announcement in this regard.

The move comes at a particularly difficult juncture for the TMC, which lost power to the BJP in the May assembly elections after 15 years in office, with saffron party leader Suvendu Adhikari now occupying the chief minister's post. Adhikari also defeated Banerjee in Bhabanipur in the assembly polls, after having beaten her in Nandigram in 2021.

Giri said Banerjee had sought his opinion on the bypoll and that he had conveyed his suggestions. He also said he had sent his views to the party over WhatsApp.

"I am a loyal soldier of the party. If the party gives me any responsibility, I will carry it out," Giri said, while making it clear that the final decision on the candidate rests with Banerjee.

Giri also argued that preference should be given to a local candidate, but said he would abide by any decision taken by the party leadership.

His name doing the rounds is significant, but does not by itself establish that the former minister will be the TMC nominee. It rather indicates the options being explored by a party attempting to rebuild the organisation after an electoral rout, and amid an unresolved fight over its very identity.

Nandigram is a particularly loaded territory for the TMC.

The constituency was the epicentre of the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement that helped catapult Banerjee and the TMC to power in 2011, ending 34 years of Left Front rule. But 14 years later, it became the stage for one of the party's biggest political reversals when Banerjee chose to contest there against her former lieutenant Adhikari, who had joined the BJP.

Adhikari won that contest and went on to become the BJP's principal challenger to the TMC in the state. In May this year, he defeated Banerjee again, this time from Bhabanipur, as the BJP swept to power in Bengal.

Adhikari contested both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the 2026 assembly election, won both, and then chose to retain Bhabanipur and resigned from Nandigram, which is what necessitated the October 6 bypoll.

The Nandigram bypoll, therefore, carries significance far beyond the vacant assembly seat. For the TMC, it is an early test of whether the party can begin rebuilding its electoral machinery in a region that once formed the bedrock of its political narrative.

However, the party is entering the contest amid an unprecedented organisational crisis.

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The TMC's name and twin-flower-on-grass symbol is the subject of a dispute before the Election Commission, with the Mamata Banerjee-led camp and the rebel faction headed by Ritabrata Banerjee staking competing claims over the party's identity, symbol and funds.

The EC held discussions with the rival camps on Saturday, but its decision is awaited.

With nominations for the October 6 bypoll already open, both sides are preparing their electoral strategies, creating the possibility of rival groups seeking votes while claiming the TMC's political legacy.

The Ritabrata-led faction has said it will continue to claim the TMC name and symbol, but is prepared to contest as independents if the poll panel does not decide in its favour before nominations close.

The rebel camp has also put Mamata Banerjee in a politically awkward position by saying it will not field a candidate against her if she herself contests Nandigram.

That challenge has found an echo from within the TMC's old Nandigram network.

Senior party leader Abu Taher, one of the prominent faces of the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement, has already questioned why Mamata Banerjee should not return to Nandigram rather than ask a local leader to fight the battle.