Mamata Banerjee stays off the Nandigram ballot as TMC names two bypoll candidates

The Trinamool Congress faction led by Mamata Banerjee named its candidates on 13 September for the 6 October by-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar. Sanchita Pradhan (Dey), a new face, will contest Nandigram in Purba Medinipur. Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, a former MLA, will contest Rejinagar in Murshidabad. Nomination close is 16 September.

The announcements end a week of speculation that Banerjee herself would stand in Nandigram. She has not been in the West Bengal Assembly since the 2026 defeat. A win in a bypoll would have returned her to the house. The rival Trinamool faction around Ritabrata Banerjee had said on Saturday that it would withdraw from Nandigram if she contested. She did not. If she stays out, this will be her first stretch outside the Assembly in 15 years.

Nandigram fell vacant because Suvendu Adhikari, now chief minister, won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in 2026 and kept Bhabanipur. Adhikari beat Banerjee in Nandigram in 2021 and beat her again in Bhabanipur in 2026. Rejinagar fell vacant because Humayun Kabir, founder of AJUP, won both Naoda and Rejinagar and kept Naoda. His son Golam Nabi Azad is the AJUP candidate in Rejinagar.

The Left Front has named Shanti Gopal Giri in Nandigram and Sayeed Asad Ali in Rejinagar. Congress has named Milan Pradhan in Nandigram and Mohd Abdullahil Kafi in Rejinagar. After the 2026 assembly election the official Trinamool strength dropped to 80 MLAs. More than 65 of them, according to The Hindu's reporting, have aligned with Ritabrata Banerjee. Two factions now claim the party name and the election symbol. That dispute sits with the Election Commission and will hang over the 6 October ballot even if only one faction prints the grass-root symbol on its posters.

Nandigram is not an ordinary vacancy. It is the seat that first broke Banerjee's personal hold in 2021 and the seat her former lieutenant now governs the state from another constituency. Fielding a new name, Sanchita Pradhan, is a decision to fight the bypoll without putting the former chief minister's own name on the form. The rebel offer to stand down if she ran is therefore moot.

The immediate calendar is short. Papers by 16 September. Polling on 6 October. The longer question is which Trinamool, Kalighat or the Ritabrata group, the Commission treats as the party in those two constituencies. Banerjee's absence from the candidate list answers only the first rumour. It does not settle the symbol.

Banerjee's personal record in Nandigram is a loss in 2021. Adhikari's personal record there is a win and then a resignation after he took Bhabanipur and the chief minister's office. Putting Sanchita Pradhan on the seat is a bid to hold a symbol fight without a second Banerjee-versus-Adhikari poster. The Left and Congress candidates make the ballot longer. They do not, on 2026 form, make it a four-way toss-up.

The Commission's file on the grass-root symbol is the one that can still scramble both bypolls. If the Ritabrata group wins the symbol, Mamata's nominees will need another mark. If her group keeps it, the rebel MLAs will campaign as the majority of the old legislature party without the picture voters know. Either way, 6 October in Nandigram is a test of a split party in the constituency that first split Banerjee from Adhikari.

Rejinagar adds a second split: Kabir's AJUP against two Trinamool factions, the Left and Congress, in a Murshidabad seat the family just vacated. The nomination close on 16 September will show whether any of those names withdraw. Until then the ballot is crowded and the symbol fight is unresolved.