All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament Saayoni Ghosh on Saturday, 19 September 2026, weighed in on the arrest of Congress-nominated Nandigram Assembly bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan, acknowledging that she had been aware of pending cases against him. Ghosh simultaneously expressed hope for a formal Trinamool Congress–Indian National Congress alliance under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

Ghosh's Remarks on the Arrest

"As far as I knew until yesterday about the leader who became their candidate from the Congress, there were some pending cases. Now look, this is politics, and in politics, what decisions can be taken before the election and what can be done, is between the two parties," Ghosh said. She added that any party or individual was free to approach the Election Commission or the courts, underlining that in a democracy, the Congress, TMC, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all retained the right to exercise their democratic options.

The Alliance Pitch

Beyond the immediate controversy, Ghosh used the occasion to articulate a broader political desire. "I hope that under Rahul ji's leadership, Congress allies with TMC. If this happens, it will send a big message that this alliance is a genuine alliance in the true sense, and not just for the sake of saying it," she said. The remarks are significant given the fraught history between the two parties in West Bengal, where they have often competed directly in assembly and parliamentary elections.

How the Arrest Unfolded

Pradhan was arrested by police in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district on the evening of Friday, 18 September 2026, in connection with an old murder case, according to police sources. An arrest warrant had reportedly been issued against him. The arrest came just hours after former Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced that her party would extend support to Pradhan following the withdrawal of TMC's own candidate from the Nandigram bypoll contest. Crucially, Pradhan was detained a day before the 19 September deadline for filing nominations.

Mamata Banerjee Alleges Political Vendetta

Banerjee publicly questioned the timing of the arrest, alleging it bore the hallmarks of the BJP's "politics of vendetta." In a post on X, she stated: "Minutes after we extended our support to the Congress candidate for the bypoll in Nandigram, the Congress candidate Milan Pradhan was arrested." The remark sharpened the political temperature around a bypoll that had already drawn considerable attention.

BJP's West Bengal Minister Weighs In

West Bengal Minister Dilip Ghosh offered a more philosophical take on the Congress–TMC dynamic, noting that political parties are formed with the intent to grow and that electoral defeats do not spell the end of a party. "See, why does someone form a political party? So that it grows. Don't we lose elections? We don't win everywhere in every election. Our party does lose, right?" he said. He added that while individuals may migrate between parties, the parties themselves endure — a pattern he argued was particularly visible in Congress and formations rooted in its political culture. The Nandigram bypoll result, whenever it is held, will be closely watched as a gauge of both the TMC–Congress relationship and the BJP's standing in the constituency that became nationally prominent during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.