Despite Mamata call, Siliguri voters willing to support BJP

Manas Bannerjee, SNS, Siliguri, 15 April 2014: Despite Mamata Banerjee’s call to vote against forces that are allegedly trying to divide Bengal on the issue of the GJMM’s statehood demand, a section of the people, including Bengalis, in Siliguri will respond to Narendra Modi’s call for change, and go for the BJP this vote.

Ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, which begins in three districts of northern north Bengal on 17 April, several people on Hill Cart Road here say they have concluded that Gorkhaland will never materialize, not even if the BJP comes to power. Other political parties, including the CPI-M and the Trinamul Congress, would fight against the division of Bengal, they say. At a time when Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee is trying hard to garner votes in favour of her candidates by branding the BJP as a ‘conspirator’ of the division of Bengal, an owner of a roadside eatery at Sevoke More here, Tarun Kanti Saha, said: “Gorkhaland is a distant dream. And their dream will never come true, even if the BJP comes to power. People know the reality, and defying Mamata Benerjee’s call, they would go for the BJP, just to bring in a change at the Centre.”

“The objective is to control the hike in prices of essentials in the market,” he added.

Mr Saha’s elder brother also said that the division of Bengal is nothing but a “political dialogue to accumulate the sentiments of the Bengali people and the non-Gorkha people here.

Not only Bengalis, but many people belonging to the Marwari, Punjabi and Bihari communities will ignore such an issue now.” “The CPI-M leadership had branded Mamata Banerjee as a ‘conspirator’ of Bengal’s division in 2011, ahead of the Assembly polls, as she was very close to GJMM chief Bimal Gurung.”

“But people here had supported the Trinamul Congress candidate in the Siliguri Assembly constituency, by following her call for a change in Bengal,” he added.

A senior sales executive and a resident of Siliguri, Aparesh Pal, echoed the earlier views.

“People, even Bengali residents, here will not listen to Mamata’s call to vote against other forces on this issue.” “They are politically conscious and are seriously observing the situation. The state BJP as well as its central leadership will not take any wrong step to create a tiny state comprising the three Hill subdivisions, as the party has to think of its future in the state,” Mr Pal said. “One thing is clear. The anti-Trinamul vote bank has been formed within the anti-Left vote bank in the last one year of Mamata Banerjee’s rule, and most of them belonging to the anti-Trinamul vote bank would go for other political parties, including the BJP this time,” Mr Pal added.

A hardcore BJP supporter Prafullya Ray said: “People will not adhere to Mamata Banerjee’s call because they have seen how she was in league with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha before coming to power in the state. People know how she had inspired the GJMM for the movement.”

“There is no Bengal division issue in the BJP’s manifesto,” Mr Ray claimed.