West Bengal Assembly polls: Who is Pabitra Kar, ex-Suvendu Adhikari aide now in Nandigram fray?

The All India Trinamool Congress on Tuesday released the first list of 291 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls

• Pabitra Kar rejoins TMC, to contest Nandigram against Adhikari
• TMC releases first list of 291 candidates for assembly polls
• Mamata Banerjee confident of winning over 226 seats in 2026

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Hours after he rejoined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party fielded Pabitra Kar, a former BJP panchayat chief, against leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in the politically crucial Nandigram seat in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls.

Kar, who was known to be close to Adhikari, joined the TMC on Tuesday in the presence of the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. His name appeared in the list of candidates announced by the party for the upcoming elections.

Who is Pabitra Kar?

- Kar, a former panchayat pradhan of Boyal-1 gram panchayat in Nandigram-2 block of Purba Medinipur district, rejoined the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday. His switch came hours before the announcement of the party’s candidates list.

-Kar had quit TMC in November 2020 to join the BJP. He played a significant role in consolidating the saffron party's organisational structure in the Boyal-1 area.

-He is believed to have been instrumental in securing a lead for the BJP in the region in the 2021 assembly elections.

- In that election, Adhikari had defeated chief minister Mamata Banerjee by a narrow margin of a little over 1,900 votes in Nandigram.

- Kar was also considered close to senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who had resigned from the Trinamool around the same time.

The TMC, in a social media post, said Kar was "dissatisfied with the BJP's anti-people stance".

TMC’s first list out

Meanwhile, the All India Trinamool Congress on Tuesday released the first list of 291 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee stating that they are giving three seats to their ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM).

Banerjee expressed confidence that the TMC would retain power with a comfortable majority in the 2026 assembly elections.

"We will win more than 226 seats in the 2026 assembly polls," she asserted.

The party has fielded its supremo from the Bhabanipur, the other constituency where BJP has named LoP Adhikari as its candidate. Adhikari had defeated Mamata Banerjee in 2021 polls in a closely fought contest in Nandigram.

The announcement of the candidates sets the stage for an intense electoral contest in West Bengal, where the TMC is seeking to return to power for a fourth consecutive term.