CM hopes Subhendu will unite warring factions

Confident of a win in the 2016 assembly polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday promised Nandigram a minister. She announced that Tamluk MP Subhendu Adhikari would be the party's nominee from Nandigram, adding that she wants him in her cabinet.
"Ami chai Subhendu ekhan theke danrak. Ami chai o montrisobhaye asuk (I want Subhendu to contest from here.I want him to join the cabinet)," she told supporters at Nandigram. "I know he is an MP . But what more will he do in Delhi?
There are others to take care of that work. Let him come here and focus on the work here," she said.
Sensing Subhendu's discomfiture - the MP was present on the dais along with sitting Nandigram MLA Fe roza Biwi - Mamata said she would reshuffle some seats.Subhendu later told TOI, "I am adisciplined worker of the party. I will do whatever I am tasked with. This is something my party chief has desired. I will abide by all decisions."
Mamata's apparent confi dence, however, hides an anxiety about holding the flock together in Nandigram. Soon after coming to power, the CM had tasked Mukul Roy to chart out the party's course in Nandigram without overtly depending on the Adhikaris, particularly Subhendu. In the following months, Subhendu was even stripped of Trinamool Youth Congress president's post, raising speculation that he might quit the party. It was only in the post-Mukul phase that things started looking up for the MP, with Abhishek Banerjee walking the extra mile to build bridges. Abhishek, who got two unlikely allies in Part ha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim, publicly reached out to Subhendu twice in quick succession. The message was sent and Subhendu was back in the reckoning. Now, he is in charge of three critical districts -the Congress bastions of Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur.
While Subhendu was losing ground in the party, another script was unfolding in Nandigram. The battle for supremacy by two lieutenants of the Nandigram siege -Abu Sufian and Abu Taher -was prompting partymen to rebel.The fault lines ran so deep that the rebels ended up winning a sizeable number of seats in the 2013 panchayat polls.Given this backdrop, the leadership felt it necessary to use Subhendu's organizational skills to bring the warring factions together before the 2016 polls.
Winning Nandigram is important for Mamata. "In my career I will not forget two places, Singur and Nandigram.The struggle waged by the people here has resonated across India. Won't you vote us back to power?" she asked the thousands who had gathered to hear her speak on Monday. The message was clear: 2011was about struggle, 2016 is about consolidation. Subhendu Adhikari will be her trusted lieutenant in this battle.