BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari filed his nomination on Friday for West Bengal assembly elections from the Nandigram seat where he will be fighting the upcoming polls against Trinamool Congress chief and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Adhikari filed his papers at the sub-divisional office in Haldia after leading a-km-long roadshow.
Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani also took part in the rally before Adhikari filed the nomination papers earlier today.
Adhikari, who left TMC recently to Join Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in December, is up against the chief minister who decided to challenge him at his home ground.
He on Friday urged people not to vote for "outsiders", as he flayed the ruling party for betraying the trust of people.
Adhikari won the Nandigram seat as a TMC candidate in 2016 by bagging over 67 per cent of the votes, defeating his nearest rival of the CPI by a margin of 81,230 votes.
"I would appeal to all of you to not waste your votes in favour of outsiders, who have betrayed your trust and aspirations after coming to power in 2011," Adhikari said, without naming Banerjee.
He claimed that the Trinamool Congress has turned into a private limited company, where other leaders "neither have a say in policy-making of the party nor in the state government".
"Everybody else, apart from the aunt and nephew (Mamata and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee), are lamp posts in the party," Adhikari said.
The Nandigram assembly constituency is set for a high-octane battle with Banerjee deciding to contest from the seat against Adhikari, who recently switched over to the saffron camp from the TMC.
Banerjee had filed her nomination on Wednesday.
The Left-led grand alliance has fielded CPI(M)'s youth leader Minakshi Mukherjee from the seat.
(With inputs from PTI)
