Barely hours after Mamata Banerjee announced her party’s support for Congress in the Nandigram bypoll, Congress candidate Milan Pradhan was arrested by police in connection with an old murder case.

The arrest has triggered sharp reactions from both the West Bengal Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), who accused the BJP of political vendetta and demanded Pradhan’s immediate release.

According to police sources, Pradhan was among the accused in a case dating back to the Nandigram land agitation of 2007. A pending warrant against him was recently reviewed during the election security checks, and with no legal protection from the court, police moved to arrest him.

A senior officer clarified, “It has nothing to do with the bypolls. During every election, we review pending warrants. We found one against him, and he will be produced before a local court tomorrow.”

The timing of the arrest, however, has added fuel to the political fire, with opposition parties alleging that the move was aimed at weakening Congress’s campaign in Nandigram. The incident underscores the tense atmosphere surrounding the bypoll, where alliances and rivalries are shaping the narrative as much as the candidates themselves.