Who's Milan Pradhan? Why is he under arrest before Nandigram by-polls?

• Congress says it has been unable to establish the whereabouts of Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan, allegedly taken away by plainclothes policemen.

• The party fears Pradhan is being pressured to withdraw, while the rival TMC faction claims police action relates to pending murder cases.

• Pradhan, a key figure in the 2007 Nandigram land-acquisition agitation, had worked with chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, then a Mamata Banerjee aide.

The whereabouts of Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate from West Bengal's Nandigram Assembly constituency, where a by-poll is due on 6 October, remained unknown to the party on Saturday, 19 September, with West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Subhankar Sarkar claiming that he feared the candidate was being threatened and coerced into withdrawing from the contest.

Sarkar made the allegation close to midnight on Friday before leaving for Nandigram by road. As of Saturday noon, he had not shared any further information.

'The situation is out of control. We fear the candidate will be tortured and threatened to withdraw. We also have no information as to why WBPCC general secretary Subhashis Bhattacharya was arrested,' Sarkar tweeted at 11.25 pm on Friday before leaving for Nandigram.

Congress leaders, according to reports, managed to secure Bhattacharya's release at around 2.00 am on Saturday. Unconfirmed reports also suggested that they were allowed to briefly meet Pradhan, who allegedly told them that he was being intimidated to withdraw from the contest. There was, however, no independent confirmation of this at the time of writing.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that Pradhan's arrest was an attempt to derail the election. 'The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan in Nandigram is a brazen attempt at VOTE CHORI and CHUNAV CHORI. The BJP is so insecure that even in a by-election, it is misusing agencies to target and arrest an Opposition candidate. The Prime Minister boasts of India as the "Mother of Democracy". What the BJP is doing in West Bengal is the MURDER OF DEMOCRACY. Congress will neither be intimidated nor silenced. A united INDIA will fight back,' he tweeted.

Ritabrata Banerjee of the 'Democratic Trinamool Congress Party', the officially recognised leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, however, claimed that it was his party that had lodged a police complaint against Pradhan. Banerjee said three murder cases had been pending against Pradhan since 2007 and claimed that during elections it was mandatory for the police to execute pending arrest warrants.

The arrest, however, will not prevent Pradhan from contesting the election, even if he is denied bail. His ability to personally lead the campaign could be affected. Congress leaders fear that they are being prevented from meeting him so that he can be coerced into withdrawing from the contest.

Congress sources said Pradhan's nomination had been accepted by the returning officer and that the pending cases had been clearly disclosed in the papers he filed. The last date for withdrawal of nominations was Friday, and Pradhan was taken into custody hours after the nominations formally closed and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress extended its support to him.

Sarkar claimed that he had spoken to Pradhan by telephone on Friday evening after the candidate returned to his hotel following the day's campaigning. Pradhan, Sarkar recalled, had told him that an atmosphere of fear prevailed in the constituency, considered the home turf of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. Fifteen minutes later, party workers and hotel management informed Sarkar that Pradhan and another Congress leader had been taken away by plainclothes policemen, he said.

Chandipur police station, Sarkar added, had refused to confirm or deny that Pradhan had been arrested. Police also allegedly refused to disclose his whereabouts and, when asked for CCTV footage from the police station, reportedly said the cameras were not functioning.

Sarkar said he had contacted officials of the Election Commission of India but was told that they had no information about Pradhan's whereabouts. "How is it possible for the police to arrest a candidate during the election when the entire administrative and police machinery function under the ECI and report to it?" he asked before leaving for Nandigram.

Pradhan was a prominent figure in the resistance to land acquisition in Nandigram in 2007. The movement, triggered by the proposed acquisition of land for a chemical hub, became one of the defining political flashpoints of the Left Front's final years in power and was followed by the Left's defeat in the 2011 Assembly election.

Pradhan, who was the convener of the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee, worked closely with Adhikari during the agitation, the latter then being a close lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee.

As many as 63 people were accused in connection with different acts of violence during the 2007 agitation, according to records cited by the Congress candidate's camp. Pradhan was among those accused.

Reports from Nandigram at the time described how Pradhan was forced to flee his home in Sonachura after it was attacked by alleged pro-government elements. His house was ransacked and partially set on fire, his parents were driven out and Pradhan himself had to seek shelter at a relief camp in Nandigram.

On Saturday, Congress general-secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told media in Thiruvananthapuram that the Congress would not withdraw Pradhan from the contest and would turn his arrest into a national issue.

Venugopal further alleged that Congress leaders had been told at the police station that Pradhan was being held temporarily and claimed that pressure was being exerted on him to withdraw in return for dropping cases against him. He said he had spoken to Pradhan and his relatives and claimed that the candidate had made clear that he would not withdraw.

"We will turn Nandigram into a national issue. Make no mistake about it," Venugopal said, alleging that the Election Commission had remained silent over the developments. Venugopal also accused the BJP of trying to suppress Opposition voices in West Bengal and described the developments as "the darkest chapter in Indian democracy".

With PTI inputs