Suvendu Adhikari joins BJP: Key Nandigram lieutenant to Mamata’s nemesis no. 1 Even as BJP made vast inroads into Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, what it found in Adhikari is a powerful face, one that signals its intent to not just fight the 2021 Assembly polls, but win. December 20, 2020 4:11:32 am BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari, Amit Shah and Mukul Roy with others at a public meeting in West Midnapore on Saturday. (Photo by Partha Paul) For many, Nandigram was the beginning of the end of 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal. As fierce protests broke out against land acquisition in the area, at the forefront was Mamata Banerjee, who broke away from the Congress in 1998. Behind the scenes, but not quite, was the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), formed in September 2007, which rallied support in the villages and created a powerful momentum.