2024 Lok Sabha elections: Trinamul forms strategy to woo voters in tea garden areas of north Bengal

We will start our campaign in the tea gardens immediately, said Prakash Chik Baraik, Rajya Sabha MP and also the district chief of the party

Workers pick tea leaves in a garden in the Darjeeling hills.: File picture

Anirban Choudhury, TT,  Alipurduar, 08.11.23 : Trinamul has drawn up a strategy to woo voters in the tea garden areas of north Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections, which includes starting an early campaign and aggressively highlighting the state’s initiatives in the estates.

Trinamul has traditionally fared poorly in parliamentary elections in the tea garden belt, which influences voting outcomes in four Lok Sabha constituencies.

Prakash Chik Baraik, Rajya Sabha MP and also the district chief of the party, said: “We will start our campaign in the tea gardens immediately. We have drawn up a list to visit people at the booth level and will start organising small meetings across the region immediately after Diwali.”

Trinamul leaders are hopeful that the state government’s focus on tea gardens will reap benefits. “We, however, also need to constantly highlight our government’s initiatives,” said Baraik.

Development work gathered pace in tea gardens after Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamul national general secretary, visited Malbazar, a town in Jalpaiguri district, and the state’s decision to set up hospitals and creches in tea gardens. These works are being undertaken by the North Bengal Development Department.

“Work on the construction of some hospitals and creches has been completed in some tea gardens. We are making preparations for these projects to be inaugurated by the chief minister,” said Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister.

Sources said the state government was looking to construct 44 hospitals and more than 60 creches in the tea belt. “A sum of Rs 1.46 crore has been allotted for each hospital. An amount of Rs 1 lakh is being initially provided to construct the creches,” said a source.

The state government is also constructing houses for tea workers under the Chai Sundari scheme. “The government has decided to provide pattas (land rights) to the workers. Since the government has done a lot in the tea gardens, we have decided to immediately focus on the tea belt,” said Guha.

A source said, referring to Trinamul’s indifferent performance in the tea belt. “The BJP won all the seats from the tea belt in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The performance of the BJP was better than Trinamul’s in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections.”

Trinamul managed a better outcome in the 2022 civic polls and 2023 rural polls. “Trinamul won most municipality and panchayat seats in the tea belt. Trinamul wants to keep this momentum going in the region,” said a hill observer.

In Malda, local MLA and Trinamul district president Abdur Rahim Boxi threatened to stop BJP MP Khagen Murmu from visiting his Malda North constituency and added that the BJP would not be allowed to hold any political programmes.

“Ratua-I block is worst-affected by erosion but the BJP MP has not taken any initiative to help the people. On the other hand, the condition of the people has worsened because the Centre is not releasing funds,” Boxi said.

Murmu, however, dared the Trinamul legislator to stop him from entering his constituency. “It is true that Ratua is deprived but this is because leaders like Boxi swindled funds granted by the Centre,” he said.

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar from Malda