Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: Discarding the 'Lotus' flag, they once again returned to the Trinamool fold, guided by the party's new leader and Nandigram candidate, Pabitra Kar. In other words, they switched parties twice within the very same day.
Nandigram stands out as one of the most high-profile constituencies in the upcoming assembly elections—the very seat where, during the 2021 polls, the state witnessed a fierce electoral battle between Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari. Indeed, the last assembly election saw Nandigram emerge as the most 'high-voltage' constituency of all. It was here that Suvendu defeated Mamata Banerjee to become the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Nandigram. However, a legal challenge regarding the election results in Nandigram remains pending before the High Court. Once again, Suvendu Adhikari is the BJP's candidate for Nandigram. This time, however, he faces a challenger in his own constituency: Pabitra Kar—a leader who was once his close associate. Kar had switched from the BJP (the 'Lotus') to the Trinamool (the 'Grass-flower') on the very day the latter announced its list of candidates. Consequently, Nandigram remains a heavyweight constituency in terms of political significance this time around as well, with every faction striving to bolster its own ranks.
Amidst the pre-election political maneuvering, three Trinamool workers from Boyal in the Nandigram-2 block switched parties on Sunday; joining the BJP in the afternoon in the presence of Suvendu Adhikari. The three individuals were identified as Sheikh Saibul, Jane Alam, and Sheikh Shahjahan. However, as the day progressed, all three had a change of heart. Discarding the 'Lotus' flag, they once again returned to the Trinamool fold, guided by the party's new leader and Nandigram candidate, Pabitra Kar. Effectively, they switched parties twice within the span of a single day.
The Trinamool leadership claims that these workers realized their mistake and promptly returned to their former party. Immediately upon rejoining Trinamool, the workers stated that they had been misled into joining the BJP. Amidst the election fervor, the trend of party-switching continues unabated; however, changing parties twice within the same day remains a truly astonishing occurrence.