Poriborton without change

Mamata faces off against former disciple-turned-defector Adhikari in a very different contest in Nandigram. It's not land acquisition but an ego clash that has acquired, tragically, communal overtones

There is some irony in Mamata Banerjee’s decision to stand from Nandigram in this make-or-break Assembly election. Ten years ago, this south Bengal constituency was, together with the abandoned Tata Nano project in Singur, the locus of the campaign that ended 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal.

The casus belli at Nandigram then was a Left-Front project to acquire a humongous amount of land for a chemical export hub. The potential displacement of thousands of people, many of them elderly and eking out a meagre livelihood from infertile soil, sparked a protest that got out of hand; 200