Shyamali Pradhan (born 2 August 1972) is an Indian politician and former member of the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...

. She was elected as the representative the Nanoor constituency in the

2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election A Legislative Assembly election was held in 2016 for the 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the '' Vidhan Sabha'' (Vidhān Sabhā) in the state of West Bengal in India. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and th ...

as a member of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

. Pradhan is a member of the party state committee from the Birbhum district in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Personal life

Shyamali Pradhan is a resident of

Nanoor Nanoor (also spelt Nanur, called Chandidas Nanoor), is a village in Nanoor CD block in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal. Nanoor is the birthplace of 14th century lyric poet Chandidas of ''Vaishnava Padavali'' fame. It is dev ...

town in the district of Birbhum, West Bengal belonging to a

Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

family. She graduated from the

Chandidas Mahavidyalaya Chandidas Mahavidyalaya, established in 1972, is a government affiliated college located at Khujutipara in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. It is affiliated to University of Burdwan The University of Burdwan (also known as Burdwan ...

affiliated to the

University of Burdwan The University of Burdwan (also known as Burdwan University or B. U.) is a public university in Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, India. It was established by the West Bengal Government as a teaching and affiliating university on 15 June 1960 wit ...

Political career

In the

2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Assembly election was held in Indian state of West Bengal in 2011 to elect the members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly as the term of the incumbent government was about to expire naturally. It was held in six phases between 18 April and 10 ...

, Shyamali Pradhan was nominated to contest from the Nanoor constituency in West Bengal as the candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), one of the constituent parties of the Left Front coalition. She lost the election to the opposition candidate Gadadhar Hazra of the

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

while polling at 46.07% of the votes cast against 49.21% in favor of Hazra. In the 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, she was re-nominated as the candidate of the party from the constituency. The

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

Trinamool Congress in the prior four years had reportedly engaged in

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereb ...

through intimidation and violence against volunteers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and later became the subject of factional infighting with the emergence of two local factions in the Nanoor constituency, one of which openly backed Pradhan's candidacy during the campaigning period. She was subsequently elected as the representative from the constituency polling at 50.07% of the votes cast against 37.73% of the votes cast in favor of the incumbent Hazra. In light of the election results, a spate of

political violence Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-state actors (forced ...

erupted between the two Trinamool Congress factions with Hazra's faction attacking the other. The leadership of the Trinamool Congress reacted to the incident by claiming that the infighting was orchestrated by the communists which was denied by Pradhan. In 2019, she was inducted as the Birbhum representative in the West Bengal state committee of the Communist Party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pradhan, Shyamali 1972 births Living people Women in West Bengal politics Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from West Bengal West Bengal MLAs 2016–2021