Curtain Raiser: Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat sees hectic activities before polls on Friday

 People of three parliamentary constituencies in north Bengal will exercise their franchise in the second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha polls on 26 April.

MANAS R BANNERJEE | SNS  |  Siliguri | April 25, 2024 : Curtain Raiser: Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat sees hectic activities before polls on Friday

(photo:SNS)

People of three parliamentary constituencies in north Bengal will exercise their franchise in the second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha polls on 26 April.

When the district election officials of Darjeeling, North and South Dinajpur are readying the stage for polling with tight security by deploying central forces, contesting candidates, belonging to different political parties were busy in their last-minute campaigning in some specific areas in Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat Lok Sabha constituencies, today.

Notably, the first phase of polling has been completed in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri in north Bengal on 19 April and the people witnessed several incidents of violence.

The BJP had bagged all six seats in 2019.

Significantly, the BJP in association with the Hill based regional parties, has won Darjeeling LS seat since 2009. BJP candidate Raju Bista, who was elected from Darjeeling in 2019 and obtained over 59 per cent votes, is contesting here for the second time.

Congress had won Darjeeling LS seat in 1977, though it was under the control of the CPM when Ratanlal Brahmin was elected in 1971. CPM had recovered its Darjeeling LS seat in 1980 by fielding Ananda Pathak. The late CPM leader Ananda Pathak was elected in 1984 and even in 1998 LS polls. Significantly, when the founder president of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) Subash Ghisingh took control of the Hills, Congress leader Inderjit was elected twice from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in 1989 and 1991. Interestingly, since 1996 to 1999, the CPM candidates, including RB Rai and SP Lepcha were elected from this seat but in 2004 the Congress bagged the seat by fielding Dawa Narbula.

After Ghising, a new era began in the Hills under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, founder president of Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM). The BJP joined hands with Mr Gurung and bagged the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat by fielding Jaswant Singh in 2009. In 2014, BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia was elected and then Mr Bista, who was born in Manipur and brought up in Delhi, was nominated by BJP in 2019. Very interestingly, both the GNLF and GJMM jointly extended support to the BJP in 2019 as the saffron party promised a permanent political solution for the Hills in its manifesto.

On the other hand, despite a relationship between chairperson of Trinamul Congress Mamata Banerjee and GJMM president Bimal Gurung, TMC could not win the Darjeeling seat despite several attempts. The TMC candidate Amar Singh Rai managed only 26.51 per cent votes in 2019.

TMC has fielded Gopal Lama from Darjeeling in association with the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) under the leadership of Anit Thapa, a former GJMM leader, who keeps control over the Hills as a chief executive of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). On the other hand, Congress has fielded Dr Munish Tamang from Darjeeling.

Both Dr Tamang and Mr Bista campaigned in Kalimpong today. Mr Bista ended his colourful campaign in Siliguri last evening with other party leaders, including party’s Cooch Behar candidate Nisith Pramanik and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.

According to political observers, TMC and BGPM are jointly trying hard to take on the BJP in Darjeeling and all leaders of both the parties campaigned on behalf of Mr Lama in their respective areas today.

In the last Assembly election, the BJP bagged five seats of the seven in Darjeeling LS constituency except Kalimpong and Chopra in North Dinajpur.

The people of Raiganj constituency in North Dinajpur will witness a triangular political fight on 26 April.

Notably, former chief minister of West Bengal late Siddhartha Shankar Roy was elected from Raiganj in 1971. Since 1980, Congress candidate Golam Yazdani was elected from Raiganj thrice. Since 1991, CPM candidate Subrata Mukherjee was elected thrice from this seat. Congress leader, late Priya Ranjan Das Munish was elected in 1999, 2004, while his widow Deepa Das Munish was elected in 2009. Ms Munshi was defeated by CPM candidate Md Salim by a narrow margin in 2014. In 2019, BJP candidate Debasree Chowdhury was elected and obtained 40.03 per cent votes. TMC candidate Kanaialal Agarwal managed 35.29 per cent votes.

BJP leadership has fielded a new candidate Kartik Pual, a Kaliyaganj-based Congress leader, who joined the BJP recently, from Raiganj.

The TMC has nominated Krishna Kalyani, who was elected as an MLA from Raiganj on BJP ticket. Congress has nominated Ali Imran Ramz alias Victor, a popular Forward Bloc leader, who is working hard to bag the seat with the help of the Left without support of any star campaigners from INDIA Bloc.

Interestingly, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, during her recent political campaigning in Raiganj, branded Victor, who would cut TMC votes to help the BJP.

Union Home minister Amit Shah, yesterday campaigned at Karandighi in Raiganj for Kartik Pual. Today, Mr Paul has given a finishing touch when Alipurduar BJP candidate chief whip of state Assembly Manoj Tigga campaigned for him.

As Mr Paul has a strong base in Kaliyaganj, Mr Kalyani today campaigned showcasing actor-cum-politician Dev.

In 2021 Assembly polls, TMC bagged five seats of the seven. Later, both the BJP MLAs joined the TMC and later one elected from Kaliyaganj returned to BJP camp recently.

Even in Balurghat LS constituency, TMC bagged four Assembly segments of the seven. BJP managed only three segments.

The Balurghat LS seat was under the control of RSP since 1977. TMC bagged the seat by fielding Arpita Ghosh in 2014. But Ms Ghosh failed to retain the seat in 2019, allegedly due to non cooperation of local party leaders. As a result, BJP candidate Dr Sukanta Majumdar was elected and obtained 45 per cent vote while Ms Ghosh managed 42 per cent.