Terai adivasi leader backs Cong candidate

BIRESWAR BANERJEE, TT, 10 Apr 2019, Siliguri: A section of leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad in the Terai has decided to support Sankar Malakar, the Congress candidate of Darjeeling seat.

The decision has led to a split in the Parishad, a social organisation that is known to have considerable clout among tribals, particularly in north Bengal.

The state leadership of the Parishad had already asserted that the organisation would support Trinamul in all Parliament seats in the state.

On Tuesday, Anand Sabar, who claimed to be a member of the advisory committee of the Parishad, announced the decision to back the Congress at the INTUC office here.

Malakar and senior INTUC leaders were present with them. "We have faced depriva- tion from the state government during the Left Front's tenure. After the government changed and Trinamul came to power, we had expected some development but things remained unchanged. The minimum wage of tea workers is yet to be fixed and tea gardens are closing down at regular intervals," said Sabar.

The Parishad leader said the state leadership had decided to support Trinamul without any consultation.

"The Congress leadership here assured us that if their candidate won in this seat, they would work for the welfare of tea workers and tribals. This is why we are supporting them in the Terai," added Sabar.

According to him, they have the support of around 40,000-odd tribals who live in the tea gardens of Terai.

There are 42 tea gardens in plains, which are under the Darjeeling parliament constituency.

Thousands of the tea garden residents are tribals.

Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad, said decisions by some "local" leaders would not affect the mandate.

"The state executive committee of our organisation had a meeting in Calcutta on March 16, where it was decided that we would support Trinamul candidates across the state. A local leader can oppose the decision and make plans to support candidate of another party but it is unlikely that he will be able to draw much support. Our supporters will stand with our decision," Tirkey said from Calcutta over phone..