With its 54 seats unfold throughout seven districts, North Bengal is pegged to be the game-changer within the ongoing Assembly elections. While the BJP striving laborious to maintain its fort within the area, the TMC is searching for to get well its misplaced floor amid turbulent political equations within the state. This area, dominated by tribal and minority communities, has principally remained away from TMC‘s reach. However, it was once considered a bastion of the Congress and the Left Front, north Bengal districts.
The region will go to polls on Saturday, with Union Minister Babul Supriyo and West Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Arup Biswas in fray for the fourth phase of the high octane poll in West Bengal. On April 10, elections will be held for 44 seats covering Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts in north Bengal and parts of South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hoogly in the southern part of the state.
The TMC appeared to be in a strong position in the region in 2016 state polls when it bagged 25 seats there. But the equation changed in the general election three years later in 2019 and the course changed much in favour of the BJP. It won seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats and stayed ahead in 35 assembly segments.
The TMC, which pulled up its socks after the Lok Sabha poll debacle, has, however, managed to woo back GJM leader Bimal Gurung, who holds sway over at least 15 assembly seats and 11 Gorkha communities. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said his party is confident of sweeping North Bengal this election.
Negating him, senior TMC leader and state minister Gautam Deb claimed that “tables would be turned on rivals” and the ruling party will emerge victorious in the northern part of the state.
Voters in north Bengal’s 54 seats — Cooch Behar (9), Jalpaiguri (7), Alipurduar (5), Darjeeling (6), North Dinajpur (9), South Dinajpur (6) and Malda (12) — have weathered many a storm over the previous few years, together with the 104-day-long Hill strike over statehood demand in 2017, as they sought the safety of indigenous rights.
The saffron social gathering, sensing anger over infiltration within the area, made NRC and CAA its ballot planks to impress the voters and pocket votes in 2019.
It had additionally inducted leaders from numerous native outfits, stitched an alliance with social teams, such because the Rajbanshis in Cooch Behar, to acquire a foothold. Gurung, the chief of one of many two factions of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), lent his assist to the BJP again then.
The social gathering had additionally claimed credit score for facilitating the historic Land Boundary Agreement in 2015 — which allowed 51 Bangladeshi enclaves to develop into part of India and 111 enclaves in Cooch Behar to merge with Bangladesh’s territory.
The TMC, nevertheless, had claimed that the age-old matter was resolved solely after its dispensation took the initiative, and paved the way in which for territory swap.
In Darjeeling, the promise of a everlasting political resolution and rising resentment in opposition to the TMC authorities over “atrocities” perpetrated throughout the 104-day agitation within the Hills, additionally helped the BJP cement its basis.
Similarly, in Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and minority-dominated Dinajpur and Malda — the saffron camp was steadfastin exploiting the difficulty of infiltration to outsmart the TMC.
According to sources within the BJP, the social work carried out by the RSS additional labored in favour of the social gathering, which got here out with flying colors in 2019. The TMC, which was grappling with infighting, corruption and communal clashes at the moment, had failed to maintain on to its bastions. The ruling social gathering, nevertheless, didn’t take this setback mendacity low and initiated vital measures to change the ground-level equations within the area.
With the return of Gurung, the TMC, which already enjoys the assist of GJM’s different faction led by Binoy Tamang, has geared to tackle the BJP.
“Gurung’s support is indeed one of our biggest achievements in the North Bengal region. We had ceded ground to the BJP in 2019, but now we are hopeful of recovering it,” a senior TMC chief, who didn’t want to be named, mentioned.
Add to that, the rising dissension within the BJP over distribution of tickets, following the induction of leaders from different events, might give the state’s ruling camp an edge.
The TMC has additionally secured a trump card in Alipurduar, after in style Scheduled Tribe (ST) chief Rajesh Lakra, hailed as ‘Tiger’, joined the social gathering.
Moreover, the Mamata Banejee-led camp, which is attempting to money in on the delay and confusion over CAA implementation to curry favour with the refugees, is hopeful that the Congress-Left-ISF alliance would possibly eat into the vote financial institution of the BJP, which it had secured in 2019.
Both the events, led by their prime leaders, have tried to pull one another down throughout their election campaigns over the previous few days, even because the Congress and the Left hope to benefit from the squabble between the TMC and the BJP to re-establish its rein within the area.
All seven districts in north Bengal are set to go to polls within the remaining 5 phases of the meeting elections to be held between April 10 and April 29.
(With PTI inputs)
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