A prestige fight for Mamata in Darjeeling

Manas R Bannerjee/SNS | Siliguri | 15 April, 2016: It is a prestige fight for chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the Hills, particularly in the Kalimpong and Siliguri seats, after the drastic changes in the political scenario in this region, especially in the Hills, as compared to the political situation in 2011. However, this is Mamata Banerjee, who has practically broken the monopoly of the Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) in the Hills by hook or crook, though she had a good political understanding with Gurung before coming to power in the last Assembly elections.

Gurung is in a tight spot after Banerjee nominated two party candidates in the Hills and backed his party’s former spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chettri, the sitting MLA from Kalimpong, against GJMM candidates in the three Hill seats. However, though Banerjee had been able to defeat former urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya in Siliguri in 2011 with the help of the GJMM, she could not taste success in the Lok Sabha and even the civic body elections in the Siliguri sub-division. The reasons were many, including a massive financial scam in the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) when Siliguri MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya was the chairman of the authority. 

Despite this fact, Banerjee has fielded football icon Bhaichung Bhutia,who was defeated in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha polls as a Trinamul candidate, as her party candidate against Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya, keeping in mind a statement made by Bimal Gurung, sources said. 

“I helped the Trinamul defeat Asok Bhattacharya, but this time, the results will be the opposite,” Gurung had told reporters in Siliguri recently. 

Notably, Banerjee, in her speeches in this region, has been saying that she is against the division of Bengal, and had branded the CPI-M as a ‘betrayer’ on the Gorkhaland demand issue. Mamata also broke tradition and ignored the people’s sentiments in the plains, when she nominated the ‘scorpion of the Hills’, who was once close to Asok Bhattacharya. Despite organisational weaknesses, Bhutia has made Siliguri his base with his relentless election campaigning here.

Left candidate Asok Bhattacharya is in no position to ignore him despite the fact that the ‘Siliguri Model’ and bonding with the Congress is well in place. The decision to not field Left Front candidates in the three Assembly constituencies Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong in the Hills, has made it clear that there is an understanding between the CPI-M and the GJMM too.

Banerjee has happily taken the opportunity to attack the CPI-M on this score and branded it an ‘ally’ of the GJMM and the BJP in the Hills.

Very recently, Banerjee directly attacked Mr Bhattacharya for his alleged telephonic talks with Hill leaders. Mr Bhattacharya was in a tight spot a few days ago after the RSP leadership protested against the decision to support the GJMM ‘officially.’ But it is true that the GJMM still is a powerful political party in the Hills and it has a strong base in some parts of the Terai and the Dooars.  Banerjee is, meanwhile, trying to read the mind of the Hills people, their exact needs and demands, political trend and emotions of the people ‘in the name of Gorkhaland.’ She has been able to set up a base there in the last five years by forming different development boards.

According to political observers, Banerjee took the GJMM into confidence just to come to power in 2011 and gave them three important things in exchange for its support and decided to throw it out once she had her base in the Hills. 

“She allowed the name Gorkhaland in the GTA, ‘a state within a state’. She allowed the phrase ‘keeping on record the demand for Gorkhaland’ in the GTA pact. Thirdly, she constituted a committee to examine the demand for inclusion of hundreds of moujas from the Teria and the Dooars in the GTA,” an observer said, adding,“In like with the overall sentiment of the people across the state, the chief minister started looking into the Hill affairs on her own political style and started weakening the GJMM.”

In the name of development and formation of several development boards, Banerjee announced Kalimpong would be a separate district by bifurcating the Darjeeling district at a time when the GJMM had been demanding administrative reforms in the Darjeeling Hills with more blocks and police stations and more sub-divisions on the line of Sikkim.

The announcement of a separate Kalimpong district is now a weapon for Independent candidate Harka Bahadur Chettri, the founder of the Jana Andolan Party (JAP) backed by the Trinamul, to garner votes.

A section of local media persons is predicting bright prospects for Mr Chettri and the possibility of his getting a ministerial berth. Similarly,a section has started whispering that Bhaichung Bhutia will be the sports minister in the next Mamata Banerjee Cabinet. 

TMC has fielded Sarada Rai Subba in Darjeeling against GJMM candidate Amar Singh Rai and Shanta Chhetri, who was allegedly driven out of her home in the Hills by Mr Gurung’s people, in Kurseong against GJMM leader and sitting MLA Rohit Sharma. 

However, Mr Gurung is still confident of his control over three Assembly seats in the Hills and is determined to ‘crush’ the Trinamul in other Assembly seats by dividing the vote banks in the plains from north Dinajpur to Kalchini in Alipurduar. Darjeeling district Congress president Shankar Malakar, who was elected MLA from Matigara-Naxalbari with support from anti-Left parties, including the GJMM, is contesting in the same seat with support from the CPI-M. 

Similarly, Congress’sitting MLA Sunil Chandra Tirkey is contesting from his seat in Phansidewa with support from the Left against TMC candidate Carolus Lakra, a former Congress leader. However, though Mr Lakra is a competent candidate, there is a lack of campaigning in Phansidewa since all Trinamul leaders have focussed on Siliguri and Dabgram Fulbari for Mr Bhutia and Gautam Deb respectively.