Two years ago, the father son duo of Sisir Adhikary and Suvendu Adhikary was instrumental in organising the first protest in Nandigram when the Left Front government planned to acquire land for a chemical hub.

Today, they are the faces of Trinamool Congress in East Midnapore as they prepare for the showdown with the Communists in Contai and Tamluk Lok Sabha seats, respectively. Their active participation during Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s agitation in Nandigram against farm land acquisition helped the party to make a dent in the CPM’s bastion which got reflected in the recent panchayat polls. “Suvendu deserves more credit than me. He stayed in Nandigram for days organising the poor farmers to protest against CPM-led government’s forcible land acquistion. Fourteen innocent people lost their lives in police firing, many more were killed by CPM cadres who raped women and torched houses,” says Sisir.

They are not new to agitation as they claim their family’s tryst with protest against injustice right from the British India.

“We are a family with a political tradition. Our house in East Midnapore was set on fire three times during the pre-Independence era because we were opposing the British Raj. Today my son and I are carrying on the legacy, though from a different perspective. Nandigram only highlighted our fight for people,” adds 72-year-old Sisir.

The father-son duo is banking on Nandigram to carry forward the success of the panchayat polls — when the Trinamool Congress ousted the CPM from the district — to the next higher level of Lok Sabha elections. “No one will forget Nandigram. It will not only be our main campaign in East Midnapore but for the whole of West Bengal,” Suvendu adds emphatically.

... contd.