Acquired & closed estates vote BJP - Trinamul breaks new ground in tea belt but is unable to win over unemployed labourers

TT, Jalpaiguri, May 29: Voters in the seven tea gardens that the Centre took over in January decisively voted for the BJP, giving the party a lead of 7,520 votes and paving the way for its victory in Alipurduar's Madarihat.

About a third of the total lead of 22,038 votes that Manoj Tigga of the BJP managed in Madarihat against Trinamul's Padam Lama came from these seven gardens whose voters are now unemployed garden labourers.

The BJP also led in Bundapani, a tea garden whose lease was cancelled by the state government in 2014 and which has since been shut.

The contrast is stark because Trinamul for the first time secured four of the five seats in the Dooars tea belt in the Assembly elections.

Madarihat has the most number of closed tea gardens in the Dooars.

Tigga said Mamata Banerjee's dole politics "has been summarily rejected by workers residing in the eight tea estates".

The seven gardens acquired by the Centre were owned by the Duncans Goenka group. Bundapani is not owned by Duncans.

"The residents in the closed gardens have banked on the Centre after its prompt decision to acquire the tea estates to scout for new investors who can reopen them. Even workers of the closed Bundapani tea estate have expressed confidence in our party," Tigga said.

"Unlike other tea estates in the Dooars, where initiatives such as distribution of food grains at subsidised rates, health care facilities and welfare schemes of the Centre and state have helped Trinamul, the tea population in the closed gardens has proved to be the exception," a political observer said. "They may have voted the BJP to drive home the point that they want a permanent solution. They want their gardens to reopen and do not believe in thriving on relief."

While workers and their families in closed gardens got benefits from the same central and state schemes as in the open gardens, there was one crucial difference. Under the central subsidised grain scheme, the closed or acquired gardens, which had no private owners, got rice at Rs 2 a kilo. But in functioning tea estates, workers got the same rice at 45 paise a kilo. The state government had said that the difference in price of Rs 1.55 would have to be borne by private garden owners. As the eight gardens had no owners, they did not get the benefit of the double subsidy.

Before the elections, tea unions and workers had pointed out that the unemployed garden hands who needed cheaper grains the most had to pay more for rice, while those with jobs were getting the state's added benefit.

Padam Lama, the Trinamul candidate of Madarihat seat, said organisational weakness was the principal reason for his defeat.

"It is true that we do not have an adequate trade union base in these gardens. There were some organisational weaknesses which is why we could not reach out to each and every resident of these eight gardens and some other gardens in the Madarihat block," Lama said. "But people are aware of the initiatives taken by the state to prevent malnutrition and starvation among unemployed workers and their families. That is why, despite not having any trade union, we came second in terms of the number of votes."

The vote count in these eight tea gardens has also proved to be a setback for the RSP. The Madarihat block, in fact the entire brew belt of Alipurduar district, was known to be a stronghold of the RSP even after 2011. In 2011, the RSP won the seat.

This year, however, the party came third in terms of vote count in these tea gardens and also in the entire Assembly segment.

"Other than Huntapara, RSP has come third in the remaining seven closed tea gardens. This proves that its tea trade union front UTUC could not take workers into confidence. The primary reason is that none of the tea trade unions, whether affiliated to the UTUC, Citu or Intuc, could bring in votes for their parties or for candidates of the Left-Congress alliance this time. Workers have started differentiating among trade unions and political parties and have thus voted either the BJP or Trinamul across Dooars," a senior trade union leader based in Jalpaiguri said.

"It is surely a warning for trade union leaders. Like Trinamul, which is concerned about the BJP's victory in Madarihat, trade unions must realise that they will have to work for workers' rights and privileges or else the tea population might shun them," the trade union leader added.

The poll data also shows that the BJP has secured a margin of 8,642 votes - including Bundapani - over Trinamul in these tea estates. "The total winning margin of the BJP candidate is 22,038 votes, of which a lead of 8,642 votes has come from only the 40 booths located in these eight gardens. This is a clear indicator that the voters here are not satisfied with the RSP and Trinamul," a political observer said.

Kumar Kujur, the previous MLA of Madarihat, said they could not take into confidence the workers and their families of the eight gardens.

"Despite regular campaigns, we could not take them into confidence for some reason or the other. We will surely discuss with party leaders and trade union leaders this debacle and how we can overcome it," Kujur said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AVIJIT SINHA IN SILIGURI