Arpita Pradhan, wife of jailed Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, has appealed to opposition parties to support him in the Nandigram by-election in West Bengal. She said she would begin campaigning on Friday, September 25, while her husband remained in judicial custody.
Pradhan called on parties across the opposition to unite against what she described as wrongdoing. She alleged that cases dating from the 2007 Nandigram protests were fabricated and politically motivated, and questioned why her husband remained jailed while Suvendu Adhikari, who was also present during the protests, was free. Those claims are her account; the source does not report a court finding on them.
The by-election is scheduled for October 6, with campaigning due to end on October 4. Congress supporters have been holding rallies and canvassing door to door in Nandigram on Milan Pradhan’s behalf.
At the Calcutta High Court on Thursday, Justice Saugata Bhattacharya verbally asked Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar to allow Pradhan to contest. The judge questioned why Pradhan had been arrested in a sixth case dating to 2007 when he was already in custody in five cases from the same year.
A trial court had remanded Pradhan in the sixth case until October 7, the day after the by-election. The High Court had not granted bail in the five other cases, and the next hearing was set for September 25. Congress leader Prakash Joshi accused the BJP of trying to prevent Pradhan from campaigning in person; that was a political allegation, not a court finding.