TMC eyes Terai tea belt

TT, Siliguri, June 10: Trinamul leaders in Darjeeling district today said they will focus on the rural areas of Siliguri subdivision to build a support base for the party in the tribal areas and the Terai tea belt.

"We have specific instructions from the state committee to build a support base in Darjeeling district, where our party could not perform well in the recent polls, unlike most of the districts in north Bengal," Ranjan Sarkar, the Darjeeling district Trinamul president, said. "Our leaders, councillors at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation and party workers have always raised their voices against the CPM, the Congress and the pathetic state of civic services provided by the municipality run by the Left."

"Such protests and movements will be there. Simultaneously, we will carry out political activities in the rural areas through the year," he added.

According to party insiders, most district leaders had focused on the town and spent most of their time criticising the CPM - particularly Asok Bhattacharya.

"Despite such a focus and the consistent anti-Asok stance, the party failed in three consecutive polls held in Siliguri in the past one year. These leaders seem to have realise after the latest debacle in the Assembly elections that instead of constantly working in town, it is better to focus on the rural areas," a party insider said.

A senior district Trinamul leader said: "Activities of our party in the Darjeeling district were mostly confined within Siliguri. There is no doubt that our leaders and workers have worked to ensure the Left's defeat. But they could not succeed. At a time our counterparts in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar nurtured the tea belt and the tribal areas of the Dooars and won four of the five seats, we failed to secure any of the two seats in the Terai, where there are tea workers and tribals."

He added: "If our party can succeed in the Dooars, there is no reason why we cannot consolidate our support base in the Terai. That is why, the leaders have now made plans to work in the Terai. Siliguri will always remain the focus but we cannot ignore the rural belts."

While Trinamul won four of the five seats in the Dooars, it did not get a single seat in the Terai and in Darjeeling district.

Party chief Mamata Banerjee had dissolved the core committee of the district after the poll results and the district leaders were reprimanded by the state leaders for their failure in three polls, civic, rural and Assembly.