Calcutta High Court grants interim bail to Congress Nandigram bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) granted interim bail to Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for Nandigram Assembly bypolls. Mr. Pradhan was arrested on September 18, 2026, over an FIR filed 19 years ago in a case related to the 2007 Nandigram agitation.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, while granting bail to the Congress candidate, said that he was taken into custody only after filing his nomination papers and that the cases against him stemmed from the 2007 Nandigram agitation.

The Court also noted that the entire incident forming the basis of the cases had been investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Justice Ghosh said that Mr. Pradhan was a political activist who had participated in the 2007 agitation and continued to remain a political worker. The Court had granted interim bail to him in all the cases filed against him till October 20, after which the Congress leader will have to surrender before a district court.

The State had opposed interim bail, submitting that the cases involved allegations of murder and that coercive processes, including warrants, were issued. Mr. Pradhan’s counsel argued that his client had been arrested after announcing his candidature and that the State had not placed material before the Court demonstrating his role in the alleged offences.

The Nandigram Assembly bypoll is scheduled for October 6. After the candidate of former CM Mamata Banerjee’s Mamata All India Trinamool Congress backed out from the contest, she announced her support to Mr. Pradhan. The arrest came hours after Ms. Banerjee supported his candidature.

In absence of Mr. Pradhan, his wife and local Congress leaders were campaigning in the constituency. West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar welcomed the High Court order calling it a victory of truth.

Nandigram Assembly seat in Purba Medinipur fell vacant after the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who won from both Bhabanipur and Nandigram in the Assembly polls, decided to resign as a legislator from Nandigram. The BJP has fielded Hasirani Rath, mother of former deceased aide of Suvendu Adhikari, Chandranath Rath, who was killed on May 6.  The contest has emerged as a prestige fight for Mr. Adhikari who had represented the seat from 2021to 2026, when he was Leader of the Opposition.

The Calcutta High Court also granted relief to Ms. Rath in a case where a discrepancy in her election affidavit was challenged. The court set aside the case where the BJP candidate’s matriculation exam qualification date preceded her date of birth.