TMC pins hope on tea voters for Darjeeling victory

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, 16 Apr 2019, Siliguri: Trinamul leaders working in the foothills of Darjeeling district are banking on the Terai tea belt for the party's win in the Darjeeling Parliament seat.

The Terai boasts 42 tea estates spread across the Assembly segments of Matigara-Naxalbari, Phansidewa and Chopra (which is in the neighbouring North Dinajpur district), along with thousands of small tea plantations. They all fall under the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat "Like Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, votes of tea population decide the result of the Darjeeling seat, too. There are over 3.5 lakh voters in the tea belt in the plains and any party that manages to secure their support will surely have an extra edge over rivals," said an observer.

The scene is same in the Darjeeling hills which have 87 tea estates where majority of voters live.

In the Parliament elections this time, the contest is different from most other seats in Bengal, where the fight is primarily between Trinamul and BJP.

It is almost a four-cornered contest in the four Assembly segments of the plains in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. In the hills, the contest is between Trinamul that has the support of a faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the BJP, which is backed by the GNLF and another Morcha faction. In the Siliguri subdivision and in the neighbouring Assembly segment of Chopra, the Congress and the CPM wield considerable clout.

"There are indications that the CPM and the Congress will draw votes in the plains. In the past five years, the BJP has managed to consolidate its base in the subdivision. That is why there will be a four-cornered contest in the four Assembly segments in the plains," the observer said.

In such a situation, the tea belt can help Trinamul secure a lead.

"We are into the campaign and are highlighting how the Mamata Banerjee government has extended a series of social welfare schemes to tea garden workers and their families. The BJP government has not done anything for the tea sector. It is our government that increased the daily wage to Rs 176 from Rs 67," said Gau- tam Deb, the Darjeeling (plains) district Trinamul chief.

A senior tea planter based in Siliguri said the total number of voters in the 42 gardens would be around 1.20 lakh. Besides, there are 20,000-odd small tea growers, most of whom are in Chopra. The small growers, their workers and families form a vote bank of another two lakh.

"Further, there are 80 bought-leaf factories, which employ around 10,000 workers, who, if counted with their families, make another 50,000 votes," he said.

Alok Chakraborty, a senior trade union leader, who worked for the Congress in the brew belt, said the trend in the tea sector was to vote en block.

"Whether it is in the Terai or the Dooars, we have always seen workers voting en block in support of a candidate. We have been organising campaigns on a regular basis for our candidate Sankar Malakar as we know how vital it is to secure support of the tea population. The emergence of small tea sector has only added to the importance of this vote bank," he said.

The CPM that has fielded Saman Pathak is also taking up political activities in the gardens.

Political analysts said a new trend was witnessed in tea gardens in the past fourfive years.

"Earlier, votes from a tea garden used to go to the party which had the strongest trade union base. However, in the Parliament and Assembly elections of 2014 and 2016, respectively, we have seen how Trinamul managed to gain support in the Dooars, despite not having a strong trade union base. This is because many workers and their families voted Trinamul despite being followers of a trade union that is inclined to some other political party. Also, Mamata Banerjee's assurance that their longstanding demand of land rights would be considered can bring in votes for her party," said an analyst.

Another advantage of Trinamul is the support of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad that has considerable clout among tribal people in the tea gardens, he added..