With West Bengal politics witnessing a class-to-caste paradigm shift, the TMC and BJP are engaged in a bitter combat to woo Dalit communities, a deciding issue within the ongoing meeting elections. Dalits, comprising 23.5 per cent of the state’s voters and 25-30 per cent of its inhabitants, can affect ends in round 100-110 seats within the 294-member meeting, most of which can go to polls within the subsequent 4 phases.
In a state the place the electoral discourse has been dominated by class battle throughout the 34 years of Left Front rule, each the TMC and BJP at the moment are leaving no stone unturned to safe the votes of Dalits and different backward communities. Rajbongshis, residing in Cooch Behar and different border districts in north Bengal, and Matuas, refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan and their descendants influential in 30-40 seats in south Bengal, are the 2 largest Dalit communities within the state whom the TMC and BJP are combating to woo.
Both the BJP and the TMC are championing the rights of Dalits and different backward communities. The state has 68 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 16 for Scheduled Tribes (STs). Both the events have promised to embrace communities like Mahishya, Teli, Tamul and Saha within the OBC listing as per the Mandal Commission suggestions if voted to energy.
While the TMC has nominated 79 Dalit candidates within the polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited a famend temple in Bangladesh’s Orakandi, the birthplace of Matua non secular guru Harichand Thakur. A TMC candidate allegedly likening Dalits with beggars has additionally emerged as a key election challenge. The BJP had received a majority of the state’s reserved seats within the 2019 Lok Sabha election, prompting the TMC to go on a course correction drive and regularise all of the refugee colonies and provides them land rights, in addition to exploiting the delay and confusion over the implementation of CAA.
While the TMC had received 50 of the reserved seats within the 2016 meeting elections, the BJP has made deep inroads into the SC-dominated areas, main in 46 seats, together with 34 in Matua-dominated areas, within the Lok Sabha elections. “The BJP has given a voice to the backward communities by speaking about their core aspirations. SCs will be a deciding factor in this election and will vote hands down for us,” state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh mentioned.
Echoing him that caste will play an necessary position within the polls, senior TMC chief Sougata Roy, nonetheless, dismissed the BJP’s declare that it’s combating for Dalit rights. “The rise in crime against Dalits in BJP-ruled states shows that the saffron party is least bothered about them. In Bengal, on the other hand, it is misleading the Dalits,” he mentioned.
The CPI(M) blamed each the TMC and the BJP for taking West Bengal’s political discourse to a “new low” via divisive politics. Since Independence, elections in West Bengal, which boasts of being the cradle of the Indian renaissance, have all the time being fought alongside ideological strains, with faith and caste-based politics taking a again seat.
The Left Front, which dominated the state’s political area for many years, discouraged caste politics, whereas SCs and STs, beneficiaries of the land reforms applied by it, have been its dedicated supporters. “Caste politics was never into play in West Bengal.
The state had never witnessed such divisive politics as is the practice now,” Sugata Bose, famous historian and Harvard University professor, advised PTI. “Realising that only communal polarisation won’t help, every party is seeking to woo Dalits, who they feel are key to win elections,” Bose mentioned.
Political analysts mentioned that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had first considered consolidating the votes of Dalits, aside from spiritual minorities, in TMC’s favour. She had nominated members of the Matua Thakurbari, the seat of energy of the Matuas, as TMC candidates within the 2011 elections, paving method for her victory.
The TMC authorities had fashioned numerous ethnic growth boards throughout the state, which helped the get together carry out properly within the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 meeting elections. However, the BJP’s promise to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the RSS’s historical past of labor amongst smaller Dalit communities like Bauris and Bagdis and the get together’s technique to give nominations to Matua Thakurbari members additionally paid off in its favour.
Besides, the BJP additionally accuses the TMC of “minority appeasement” and favouring unlawful immigrants over refugees, who had fled spiritual persecution in Bangladesh. Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya mentioned that Dalits and minorities, regardless of being dominant by their numbers, have been by no means key gamers in West Bengal politics as higher caste Hindus all the time dominated the political area.
“The Left Front did not encourage identity politics. But Mamata Banerjee had first shown the road and now the BJP is treading it,” he mentioned.
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