Tough battle for TMC in Siliguri

Rakhi Chakrabarty,TNN | Apr 24, 2015, KOLKATA: Siliguri has a strong Kolkata connect. Almost every family in the foothills is in touch with the city in terms of business or otherwise. Yet, Mamata Banerjee won't have a cake walk in this part of Bengal like the scene in Kolkata. 

Identities — political, ethnic, regional and even religious — in Siliguri have space for all major parties Left, Right and Centre. Even national player BJP piggy rides on Bimal Gurung's GJM in as many as seven wards with an increasing Gorkha population out of a total 47 wards in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation. The flip side is that this might push the non-Gorkha population away from BJP. 

This is among the few places where Left is force capable of forming the board. With the electorate divided between Trinamool, BJP-GJM, Congress and Left, the ruling party is bracing for a stiff prestige fight in the civic polls to be held on Saturday. 

Siliguri has been in flux since 2009. People voted for the Congress-Trinamool combine against the Left, though the alliance broke up and the Congress formed the board with tacit support from the Left. Later, as it happened in other municipalities, Trinamool drove a wedge within Congress and drew the councilors to their fold resulting in a stalemate. However, Trinamool improved its support base in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls relegating the Left to the third position with BJP making a surprise dent in the vote share. 

The BJP is hoping to retain its vote share in Siliguri. The ruling Trinamool is ahead though the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri-Development Authority (SJDA) scam has cast a shadow particularly in the 14 wards (added areas) bordering Jalpaiguri. Former Left Front minister Asok Bhattacharya has made things difficult for the Trinamool by joining the municipal contest. Bhattacharya is the CPM candidate from ward 6, off Hill Cart Road — a cosmopolitan ward with a sizeable refugee Bengali, Bihari, Marwari, and a strong minority population. Trinamool candidate Arup Ratan Ghosh hails from this ward, and another local candidate Alam poses a threat to the CPM's minority support in this ward. Bhattacharya's joining the fray has ratcheted up the tempo for the civic polls by several notches. 

There is one question though. Old Siliguri residents from Hakimpara, Bhaktinagar fear that the polls may not be as peaceful as they had been earlier. CPM leader and high court lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya raised the alarm on Thursday. "I have specific information that criminals from Kolkata have taken shelter in the Bhaktinagar area. I would urge the administration to see that citizens can vote freely," he said. 

The CPM concern is not without reason when chief minister Mamata Banerjee has bared her party's intense desire to retain SMC. In the run-up to the polls, she set the tone for a no-holds-barred battle when she announced that her party must get Siliguri by "hook or by crook". Asok Bhattacharya retorted: "Does she (Mamata) think Siliguri is a child's toy? They will find the going tough this poll." 

Unfazed, Trinamool minister and north Bengal leader Goutam Deb said, "We will win fairly comfortably in more than 35 seats." The Trinamool has sniffed victory in a possible division of anti-Trinamool votes among the Left, Congress and BJP.