Nandigram Candidate Abandons Her, Mamata Banerjee Pulls A Congress Surprise

After her own candidate backed out of the Nandigram bypoll, Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that her faction of the Trinamool Congress will now back the Congress nominee. She also noted she has the Congress's support in the fight to claim the name and symbol of the party she founded in 1998: "Rahul Gandhi called me yesterday. We are together. We will not surrender to the BJP." She said the bypoll wasn't discussed on that call: "I had it in my mind, though I didn't tell them about the support in Nandigram."Her faction had announced Sanchita Pradhan Dey as the candidate on Sunday; on Thursday night, Dey is learnt to have met Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, and on Friday it was revealed that Dey was withdrawing from the contest.