Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Suvendu Adhikari challenged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee from his assembly constituency Nandigram on Tuesday.

Adhikari, who was attending the Nandigram Diwas, said, "The Nandigram movement was not steered by any leader. It was a people's movement... Trinamool tried to take credit for the movement."

"I have wiped out CPI-M. Today I promise to garage the aunt-nephew duo (Mamata Banerjee and  Abhishek Banerjee)," he added.

On Mar 14 in 2007, a clash had erupted between police and protesting farmers in East Medinipur's Nandigram in an aftermath of a failed project by the then Communist Government of West Bengal to acquire land for a special economic zone (SEZ).

As the situation had turned violent, police restored to lathi-charge, lobbed tear gas shells and finally opened fire on the villagers.

At least 14 protesters were killed and several others were injured in the incident which had triggered large-scale political as well as social movements across Bengal and it was the beginning of the collapse of the decade-old Left regime in the state.

Later the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had initiated a probe into the massacre and years later, the CBI exonerated the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government of responsibility for the shootings.

It was also revealed later that all 14 people were not killed in the police shooting that day as bullet wounds were found in the bodies of only eight victims while injury marks caused by sharp or pointed weapons were spotted in five bodies and the remaining one had died due to injuries caused by a crude bomb's splinter.

After Adhikari deserted the Trinamool and went to the BJP, Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly elections had unsuccessfully contested against her former confidante from Nandigram.

Adhikari had won the elections from Nandigram by over 1,900 votes.