BJP win may result in GJMM dominance in Darjeeling

Manas R Banerjee, SNS,ALIPURDUAR, 12 April: A section of voters in the Dooars, especially in the Madarihat-Kalchini areas, were not concerned about the prospects of the BJP candidate there, but the ‘possibility’ of the BJP candidate in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, S S Ahluwalia, performing well.

A section of the non-Nepali speaking people was anxious about possible unrest in the otherwise peaceful plains.

Recalling the volatile situation in Nagrakata, Banarhat, Birpara, Kalchini, Jaigaon and even in Madarihat in the Dooars that followed the demand for inclusion of additional areas in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a Kalchini resident said: “We are not concerned about the results in our Alipurduar LS seat, but we surely want to know how Trinamul candidate Bhaichung Bhutia fares in the Darjeeling seat. If the GJMM-backed BJP candidate wins the Darjeeling seat, controlling the highhandedness of the Morcha here on the issue of a separate state and inclusion of areas from the Dooars will be a tough job.”

The voters are speculating on the fate of the mainstream political party candidates, given the fact that out of the 10 candidates, the election is going to be a four-way contest in Alipurduar seat.

While a section of the public predicted a tough fight between Left candidate Manohar Tirkey and BJP candidate Birendra Bara (Oraon), another section held that the battle would be between Congress candidate Joseph Munda and the RSP candidate Mr Tirkey.

People have come up with various stories involving the Trinamul and its leadership.

“Mamata Banerjee last came here in 2009, and she never visited us in the past five years. She had promised a separate Alipurduar district. If she comes here ahead of this election, it will be a face saver for the Trinamul Congress,” a senior citizen commented.

Undoubtedly, the Trinamul and Mamata Banerjee wave had swept across this region once, but the trend was set to be changed, thanks to the corruption charges against the Miss Banerjee-led government and her failure to keep her promise to make Alipurduar a separate district.

The slogan of change that Miss Banerjee had once raised got subdued by the Modi wave which started eroding both the Left and the anti-Left vote bank.

People here were unhappy as Miss Banerjee's promise of bifurcating Jalpaiguri to make Alipurduar a separate district is yet to be fulfilled. 

Her retreating on the issue has not generated favourable reactions. And the result reflected it. The Trinamul also failed to perform well in the recent rural polls here and even in the Alipurduar Municipal election.

People were also unhappy with the Trinamul’s organisational functioning in Alipurduar town with four factions operating. Conflict was under way over the new and old TMC leaders. The factionalism had come to the fore after Miss Banerjee nominated Dasrath Tirkey as candidate for the LS seat by ignoring other senior contenders here.  

“A large section of Trinamul workers in Kumargram Assembly constituency worked hard to defeat RSP candidate Dasrath Trikey in 2011, as Joachim Buxla, a former RSP MP, contested against a LF candidate.”

“This group is totally inactive because they could not gladly accept Tirkey as a candidate for the Alipurduar LS seat,” a resident of Alipurduar, Abhijit Roy, said. “At present, they are working for Joachim Buxla, who is contesting as the TMC candidate in the Kumargram Assembly by-polls, and not for Dasrath Tirkey, the former RSP MLA who joined Trinamul. Tirkey has been branded a betrayer,” he added.

When asked to comment Mr Tirkey replied, “I don’t think so. A large section of the people in tea plantations will favour me.”

Common people believed that the percentage of votes would certainly go up in favour of the BJP candidate as he was being supported by the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, with the Modi wave intact.

However, the general people decided to support the BJP because of the alarming rise in everyday commodity price.

As such, people here expect a contest between the BJP and the LF and a chance for sitting MP Manohar Tirkey, though he was in no position to garner overwhelming support from the tea belt. While Mr Tirkey sounded confident: “we will be able to retain the seat,” a BJP supporter Bikash Dey, said, “The wave is totally in favour of the BJP candidate, but we fear the opponents’ campaigning too as they have raised the issue of Bengal’s division.”

Conscious voters felt that Congress candidate Joseph Munda had his own base in Nagrakata Assembly segment and he grew more popular after the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had visited the region. Mr Munda was also dealing with the most sensitive issues in the tea plantation ~ poor wages and workers’ plight.