Rahul Gandhi to meet ethnic communities of north Bengal during Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra

Although large parts of north Bengal were once in the control of Congress before the Left and TMC took over, the BJP has made substantial inroads in the recent years

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wants to meet ethnic communities and tea garden workers of north Bengal during his upcoming ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ to understand local issues in the run up to the 2024 general elections, the party’s state leaders said on Thursday.

Rahul Gandhi with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the party HQ in New Delhi. (ANI Photo)

The campaign is likely to touch West Bengal at the end of January.

Although large parts of north Bengal were once in the control of Congress before the Left and Trinamool Congress (TMC) took over, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made substantial inroads in the recent years.

BJP bagged 29 out of the 54 assembly seats in the eight north Bengal districts in 2021, although TMC won 215 of the state’s 294 seats against 75 wrested by the BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP bagged 18 of the state’s 42 seats, a record for them. In north Bengal, the saffron camp secured seven of the eight seats.

Gandhi’s Manipur-to-Mumbai campaign, in which I.N.D.I.A coalition leaders are also invited to participate, will help the Congress central leadership evaluate the party’s position in several West Bengal districts before taking a call on how to carry out seat-sharing talks with the TMC for the Lok Sabha polls.

“Our leaders in north Bengal are holding meetings with local ethnic groups, such as the Rajbongshi community, hill people and tea garden workers to arrange interactive sessions with Rahul Gandhi. The dates and venues of these meetings are yet to be finalised,” senior state Congress leader Manoj Chakraborty told HT.

TMC chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee has offered not to field any candidate from Berhampore and Malda South, the two Lok Sabha seats Congress has been winning since 1999 and 2009, respectively. She made the offer at a meeting of the opposition coalition leaders in Delhi on December 19.

West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury last week said that this his party “is not dependent on the TMC’s charity”, and told the Congress leadership that the party is capable of contesting from around eight more seats, including Raiganj in north Bengal.

“TMC has made its offer. We are watching the developments,” a TMC Lok Sabha member said.