LF, Cong leaders to agitate if Alipurduar is not formed

MANAS R BANNERJEE, SNS, Siliguri, 30 July 2013: Anti-Trinamul political parties suspect that the state government may delay in implementing the proposed separate Alipurduar district since the ruling party has failed to secure the required number of ZP seats in Alipurduar sub-division. 

Both the Left and the Congress leaders have threatened that the people in Alipurduar would start agitating if the Mamata Banerjee’s government does not start functioning of a separate Alipurduar district and its zilla parishad, which would not come under her party’s control. 

Notably, the Left Front bagged 27 seats out of the 37-member Jalpaiguri zilla parishad while the Trinamul Congress won only four and the Congress won four seats. Interestingly, the GJMM and JMM won one seat each. 

The LF bagged 10 seats from Alipurduar-I, Alipurduar-II, Kumargram blocks, which are required minimum majority number to form the proposed Alipurduar zilla parishad, out of total 18 seats fall under Alipurduar sub division. 

The chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, reportedly stopped the process of implementing the separate Alipurduar district midway to avoid formation of a separate zilla parishad with the existing elected members when the LF had overwhelming majority in both the Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar sub-divisions. 

It was also learnt that she asked her party leadership to secure the required number of seats in Alipurduar so that the party can rule the new zilla parishad after formation of a new district bifurcating the existing Jalpaiguri. 

Alipurduar-based Trinamul leader, Mr Mridul Goswami, who is also a state committee member, said: “The Trinamul had no organisational base in Jalpaiguri as well as in the tea belt but they performed well compared to previous records.” 

“We could not secure majority ZP seats because the poll pattern was on ethnic lines and the GJMM and JMM followers, who used to support mainstream political parties, cast their votes on ethnic sentiment unfortunately,” said Mr Goswami. 

The Jalpaiguri district CPI-M secretary, Mr Krishna Banerjee, said: “ In multi-ethnic Dooars, Miss Banerjee played an ethnic card and applied divide and rule policy. As a result, people have rejected her in Alipurduar. 

Miss Banerjee had promised to create a separate district bifurcating Jalpaiguri ahead of the last Assembly polls. But she kept the matter in abeyance to achieve her political intention. If she does not execute following poll results in Alipurduar, people will not absolve her when she assured the people of Alipurduar for execution of a separate district addressing a rally at Falakata on 23 July.” 

Alipurduar-based Congress leader, Mr Biswaranjan Sarkar, said: “If the state government intentionally delays in executing the separate district of Alipurduar we will start a greater movement against the state."