Bengal's Hills Grow Tense as Pre-Poll Politics Upends Old Equations

From a demand for statehood to a reckoning of how far the region has come under Mamata Banerjee, a long look at the politics that still dominates the hills.

Posters of GJK (2) faction (as in this photo) are seen in much greater numbers than those of GJM (1). Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, The Wire, 13 April 2021, Darjeeling: “Aiyo, BJP aiyo,” shouted a band of party supporters, dancing to the tune of traditional Tamang community music, as they waited for Union home minister Amit Shah in Kalimpong. The phrase, which means ‘here comes BJP’, along with the ‘Jai Gorkha’, ‘Narendra Modi zindabad,’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chants kept interrupting the music from time to time.

Some had Narendra Modi masks on, others had saffron caps and carried flags or festoons. There were more flags of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) than the BJP’s but the bearers of those flags also joined in the chants.

The hill town had never witnessed such enthusiasm over a BJP rally, not even during the campaign of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, locals recalled. In 2019, the BJP rode high on an alliance of pro-Gorkhaland regional parties, chiefly the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha faction led by Bimal Gurung, popularly referred to as GJM(1).

Amit Shah in Kalimpong. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

But Gurung’s change of camp – from the BJP to the TMC – has changed many equations in the Darjeeling hills, administratively covered under the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and made of three assembly seats – Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. All three seats are in for triangular contests this time.

It was because of Gurung’s support that the BJP had won Darjeeling Lok Sabha three times successively since 2009.

Explaining why BJP now had a greater chance of winning than ever, Pradip Pradhan, a party supporter from Teesta Bazaar area who had come to Kalimpong town to attend Shah’s rally, said, “Local people do not like Mamata Banerjee. One faction of the GJM had already been discredited for having joined hands with her. Now, Gurung has done the same. Leaders and supporters of Gurung’s faction are joining the BJP on a daily basis.”

The hills’ politics has traditionally been dominated by sentiments against the state government. Even though Mamata Banerjee  managed to make significant inroads with her development projects by 2016, police atrocities during the 2017 statehood agitation turned a majority of the hills’ population against her.

It is riding on this anti-TMC sentiment that Gurung managed to retain his support base despite remaining in hiding from August 2017 to October 2020.

Gurung’s switch over, last October, was initially seen as a jolt to the BJP but, as time progressed, it has appeared as a golden opportunity for the saffron party to build its own organisation in the hills for the first time. A section of Gurung’s supporters could not accept the alliance with the TMC, deserted the party, and joined the BJP instead.

Bimal Gurung addressing a rally in Kalimpong, Gorumathan area. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Subha Pradhan, the BJP’s candidate for Kalimpong, is one such. He was the secretary of the Kalimpong district committee of GJM(1) but left the party for BJP just ahead of the elections, taking 11 of the 12 members of the district committee along.

The only remaining member of GJM(1)’s Kalimpong district committee, Ram Bahadur Bhujel, is now the GJM(1) candidate from Kalimpong.

There is a third candidate – Ruden Lepcha of GJM(2), the faction led by Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa. This faction had split from Gurung’s leadership during the 2017 statehood agitations and worked with the state government to restore peace. The GJM(2) had sided with Mamata Banerjee ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but was trounced by the GJM(1)-BJP-GNLF combine. However, they have built some grounds since then, as Thapa worked as the state-government nominated head of GTA and initiated some development work.

TMC did not field candidates here, leaving the seats for the two factions of the GJM. Mamata Banerjee had said while announcing the party’s candidate list for the rest of the state that the seats in the hills have been left for their friends – meaning GJM (1) and GJM (2) – and that whoever wins would be working with the TMC.

In the hills, however, the equations are not as simple.

In April, two days after the TMC’s top leaders in the hills – Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Chhetri and hill TMC president-cum-Mirik municipal chairman L.B. Rai – announced support for GJM (1), TMC’s youth wing leaders in Kalimpong addressed a press conference saying they would support GJM(2).

“It is difficult for many TMC supporters to vote for Gurung because Gurung’s supporters perpetrated a lot of atrocities on TMC supporters during the 2017 statehood agitation,” said Nishan Subba, a resident of Sixth Mile village near Kalimpong town.

Of confusion and silence

Outside the rally venues, the atmosphere is tense. “Except for hard-core supporters of different parties, no one wants to open up on political issues. It’s not clear who has popular support,” said Manisha Chhetri, a resident of the Tukvar Fourth Division village in Rangit II gram panchayat area, close to Patlebas, the village of Bimal Gurung in Darjeeling’s Tukvar area.

Bimal gurung’s residence at Patlebas village. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

She works in the Tukvar tea garden and her husband is a construction worker. The river Chhota Rangit flows nearby. The scenic village has a couple of home-stays operational over the past few years. During the 2017 statehood agitation, this was a bastion of Gurung and was frequented by the police. It has witnessed a series of government projects over the past two years, including on roads and water supply, all initiated by the GJM (2)-led GTA. The police have also conducted public relations campaigns by organising events such as football tournaments.

At Patlebas, anyone asked about the prospect of the elections had the same answer: “Who knows what’s on people’s mind.”

Just like Patlebas, there is an eerie silence on the election in towns and the rural areas, as this is the first time in many years that the hills are going to the polls with no clear favourites and with no dominant political equation. It will be only after the elections that new political equations would emerge, local residents felt.

GJM (1) party office at Patlebas village where Bimal Gurung lives. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Lamahatta, at an altitude of 5,700 feet, was a quaint and nondescript village until one fine afternoon in 2012 Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s convoy from Darjeeling to Kalimpong stopped by. She got down from her car, took a series of photos on her iPad, and spoke to local people. Within a year, she had inaugurated an eco-tourism park at Lamahatta. Over the past few years, it has emerged as a tourist destination, with restaurants and more than a dozen lodging facilities.

However, Padam Lama, a youth from the village engaged in the transport industry, said that no one knew which side the votes will go this time. Inside the village, there was no signs of political campaigns, except for e few posters on walls. Instead of political flags or festoons, the five-coloured Buddhist flags dominated the scene.

“The government has worked but the police atrocities during the 2017 agitations made Mamata Banerjee unpopular all over the hills. Now that both the GJM factions are siding with the TMC, the people are confused. The appeal that Modi has can benefit from this confusion,” said Lama, who himself is happy with the way roadways have improved during the Mamata Banerjee regime.

Barely 10 km from Lamahatta, Takdah is another place that has transformed during TMC rule due to aggressive promotion of its tourism value. However, local residents hardly agreed to talk on politics. “Development cannot be denied but it’s not the only issue,” said the owner of a homestay at Takdah who did not want to be identified.

He explained his fears: “Right now, no one knows who will win. No one wants to antagonise any party by making public their opinion.”

It is from Takdah that Norbu G. Lama, the GJM(1) candidate for Kurseong hails. He will be facing the GJM(2) women’s wing leader Tshering Dahal and BJP-GNLF’s B.P. Bajgain, who used to be a prominent GJM leader of the Gurung faction until he joined BJP in January this year.

Roadways have significantly improved during Mamata Banerjee’s rule in this region where the economy is dependent on tourism to a great extent. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

The equations

The equations are complex.

The two factions of the GJM, which were the hills’ supreme political forces since the birth of the party in 2007, are fighting each other to establish supremacy.

The GNLF, which was the hills’ supreme political force since 1986 and until the rise of the GJM, was a dying entity but has got fresh oxygen since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when its leader Neeraj Tamang Zimba contested on a BJP ticket from Darjeeling assembly by-election and won. This time, GNLF wanted its leaders to contest on their own symbols with the BJP’s backing but finally agreed to the BJP’s proposal of contesting on a BJP ticket. Zimba has thus been re-nominated from Darjeeling. This has resulted in a section of GNLF supporters, especially the followers of popular GNLF leader Ajay Edwards, becoming inactive.

In Darjeeling, Zimba will be contesting veteran activist-lawyer Pemba Tshering Ola of GJM(1) and Keshavraj Pokhrel of GJM(2), a schoolteacher.

In some places of Kurseong, some GNLF supporters have also joined the GJM(2) faction in the past few weeks. The Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist (CPRM), a hill-based party with influence mostly in Kurseong, has supported the BJP but their Kalimpong leaders have opposed the move.

Of the hills’ oldest surviving parties, the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) is a marginal force at present. One of its factions has supported the BJP and the other has fielded independent candidates. The BJP has got two more marginal forces by its side – Sumeti Mukti Morcha and Gorkhaland Rashtriya Nirman Morcha.

“In hills, traditionally, the regional parties used to bargain with the national parties. But now, with all three regional forces, the GJM (1), GJM (2) and the GNLF having questionable credibility, there is a political vacuum,” said Chepal Sherpa, a political science research scholar at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University who lives in Kurseong town.

“I have been living at home for the past three months and I can feel that confusion everywhere,” he said.

A BJP rally in Darjeeling. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Sherpa said that it is not the political parties that keep the statehood aspirations alive but the people. “The GNLF lost its credibility in 2006-07 after dropping the demand for Gorkhaland and settling for the hills’ inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the constitution. Gurung, even when absconding, had huge popular support because he kept pressing for Gorkhaland. Now, there is no party who can be said to have the popular mandate,” he said.

One positive impact of this confusion is the return of democratic space in the hills, observed Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a former GJM MLA from Kalimpong who formed his own party, Jan Andolan Party, it 2016. His party is not in the fray in this election, as he thinks resisting the BJP is important.

“Earlier, the hills were used to seeing one-party, or rather one-person rule. First it was Subash Ghising of GNLF and then Bimal Gurung of GJM. That political monopoly has broken and there seems to be no indication of the rise of another new ‘boss’ as of now,” said Chhetri.

Chhetri said he considers the present situation as beneficial for locals, as there is a ‘level playing field’ for all political parties and opinion. “Moreover, common people’s importance has increased because no party is sure of its support base and they are all trying to reach out to voters.”

The campaigns in the villages are dominated by distribution of leaflets, door-to-door trips and small meetings. In many villages, especially where GJM(2) has a presence, children can be heard whistling all the time because the party has distributed whistles, their electoral symbol, among their supporters and children.

Teesta village in Kalimpong area. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

According to Priyanka Pradhan, a resident of Subedar Busty in Kurseong and a teacher in the Ramkrishna H.S. School for Girls, the GJM(2) faction has more people attending their events, since they have been with the state government and running the GTA, but Bimal Gurung, too, still has significant support.

“Gurung supporters are not overtly active but one can feel his support among the silent masses,” she said, adding that the GJM (2) faction, having better organisational strength, was depending more on door-to-door campaigns, while Gurung is depending more on public meetings and rallies.

The issues: Development, Gorkhaland, NRC  

This time, Bimal Gurung’s GJM (1) has been campaigning hard, accusing BJP of betraying the Gorkha people over the past 12 years and calling on the electorate to re-elect Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister. Banerjee is dead against a division of the state, and so Gurung is in no position to go on an aggressive campaign seeking Gorkhaland, even though he has been repeating that he has not dropped the statehood demand.

GJM (2) is trying to portray itself as an independent force with a mere “diplomatic relation” with the state government. They have accused Gurung of having misled people by taking a militant stance against the state government, cited the development work they have done through the GTA since the end of 2017, and called upon people to strengthen them so they can have more bargaining power.

Anit Thapa of GJM(2) faction addressing a rally in Mirik, Darjeeling. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

The population in the hills is, to a great extent, dominated by tea garden workers and their family. There are 87 operational tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills. Tea and tourism have been the major source of income. Compared to the gardens in the Dooars of the foothills, the gardens in the hills are in a relatively better financial state. The GJM (2) has focused on telling people how Gurung’s violent movement of 2017 has hurt both industries.

In addition, both GJM (1) and GJM (2) are carrying out an intense campaign against the BJP on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – citing how more than 1 lakh Gorkhas living in Assam had been kept off the Assam NRC and lambasting the BJP for having called for a similar exercise in Bengal.

“The BJP is anti-Gorkha. They are calling for NRC in Bengal but most of the people in the hills, including the tea garden residents, do not have proper papers. The Gorkhas will be in deep trouble if the BJP wins,” Binay Tamang said while addressing people at Mongpo earlier this month.

It is due to these campaigns that the BJP has brought in a team of leaders from Assam who have canvassed in all three assembly constituencies saying GJM leaders have been misleading people with false information. Thereafter, both of the GJM’s factions brought in Gorkha leaders from Assam to elaborate how the NRC ruined the lives of the Gorkhas in Assam.

“The non-BJP parties are spreading lies about the plight of Gorkhas in Assam. They are trying to demonise the NRC. I have said it with authority that I will not contest the election if anyone manages to show proof of one lakh gorkhas having been robbed of citizenship,” BJP-GNLF’s candidate B.P. Bajgain told The Wire.

A BJP rally in Kalimpong. Photo: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

GNLF is calling upon people to vote for the BJP. However, a section of their own supporters are resolutely against BJP. The alliance with the GNLF is more comforting to the BJP because they would not have to talk about Gorkhaland then. Promising Gorkhaland will have a disastrous political impact in the rest of Bengal, the party knows. Now, their key promise is the inclusion of 11 tribes from the hills in the list of the Scheduled Tribes, a move that would make the areas under GTA into a tribal-majority and pave the way towards GNLF’s demand of Sixth Schedule status for the hills.

The Sixth Schedule of the constitution has provisions for creation of autonomous districts and autonomous regions in tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

In such a state of confusion, the BJP has been smelling an advantage. Amit Shah held two back to back road shows in Kalimpong and Darjeeling, while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath addressed a rally in Kurseong. Whether their big push will yield results remains to be seen but a number of people can already be branded ‘Modi voters’ and they are keen on giving the BJP a chance.

Meanwhile, GJM won all three seats in the hills with massive margins in 2011 and 2016.

In 2016, the GJM defeated its nearest rival, TMC, by 50,000 votes in Darjeeling and 33,000 votes in Kurseong. GJM’s winning margin was least in Kalimpong at 11,000 votes, as the party was fighting rebel GJM leader and incumbent MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri who launched his own party ahead of the elections.

In the 2019 Darjeeling assembly by-election, GNLF’s Niraj Zimba, contesting on a BJP ticket and with GJM (1)’s backing, defeated GJM(2)’s Binay Tamang by over 46,000 votes.

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is an independent journalist and author based in Kolkata.