The Congress candidate for the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal's Nandigram, Milan Pradhan, was arrested on Friday in a non-bailable case.
This comes just hours after former CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee backed him for the bypolls, following the sudden withdrawal of her own candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, from the fray.
Local media reports say that Pradhan had been arrested at about 5 PM on Friday in connection with the murder case, just after a round of door-to-door campaigning in the Rayapara area.
The case was linked to the Nandigram violence of 2007, though specific details of the murder, and the Congress's replacement candidate for Pradhan, are yet to be revealed.
"If you resort to intimidation—refusing to give space to the opposition—do you want autocracy or democracy in this country?" questioned West Bengal Congress spokesperson Mita Chakraborty, lashing out at the BJP government for having Pradhan arrested just after Mamata backed him.
Pradhan had been part of the Mamata camp's plans to back the Congress and fight the BJP together in the bypolls at both Nandigram—one of the two seats from where CM Suvendu Adhikari had contested the 2026 Assembly elections and won—and Rejinagar.
Backed by Mamata, the Congress leader was to take on Mohammad Eteshamul Haque from the Ritabrata camp and Hasirani Rath, the mother of CM Adhikari's slain aide, Chandranath Rath.
Both bypolls are scheduled for October 6 and the votes will be counted on October 9.
This also comes after Mamata lashed out at the BJP for "trying to destroy the Opposition parties", referring to the Election Commission's (EC) Friday decision to split the TMC into two camps, with two distinct symbols.
The EC on Friday said the Mamata faction is to fight future elections under the name 'Mamata All India Trinamool Congress', while the Ritabrata-led rebel faction is to contest under the name of the Democratic Trinamool Congress.
The EC also froze the TMC's existing name and the traditional 'Jora Ghash Phul' (twin flowers and grass) symbol, and allotted Mamata's party with the 'footballer' symbol and the Ritabrata camp with the 'envelope' symbol.
