E-Paper
At Bengal’s Matigara-Naxalbari, caste a key factor in triangular contest
The selection of candidates is directly linked to the demographic character of the constituency, the parties admit.
At the Matigara-Naxalbari assembly constituency in Darjeeling district, which goes to the polls on April 17, the Congress continues to be a formidable force while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are vying to win by projecting the caste factor.
Though in power in Bengal since 2011, the TMC could not win even one of the six assembly constituencies in Darjeeling and Kalimpong hill districts in the last state polls held in 2016. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) retained the three assembly seats of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) wrested Siliguri while the Congress retained the Matigara-Naxalbari and Phasidewa seats.
The BJP has now emerged as a rising force because it won seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats in the north Bengal region in 2019. Matigara-Naxalbari is likely to witness a triangular contest, locals feel.
While the Congress has fielded its outgoing MLA Sankar Malakar, who won the seat twice earlier, the BJP has once again nominated its 2016 candidate Anandamoy Barman.
The TMC initially named retired army officer Nalini Ranjan Roy but replaced him with Rajen Sundas, a former regional transport officer.
The selection of candidates is directly linked to the demographic character of the constituency, the parties admit.
The constituency has around 2,84,000 voters. Of them, the largest section is comprised of the Rajbanshis, a Hindu Dalit community. They are followed by the Gorkhas and the tribal people.
Bhajan Singha, a Rajbanshi voter, said, “The sudden change of the TMC candidate has not gone down well with the Rajbanshis as Nalini Ranjan Roy is a member of our community.”
The BJP has made this an election issue. Barman, its candidate, is also a Rajbanshi. He said, “The replacement proves that the TMC is not sympathetic towards the Rajbanshis.”
Sundas, a Gorkha, has been fielded to secure the support of his community because the TMC is being backed by the GJM, ruling party leaders said.
“People will vote for the TMC because of the development projects carried out by the Mamata Banerjee government. The Rajbanshis, Gorkhas and the Adivasis will vote for her,” said Sundas.
Barman, the BJP candidate, has tested positive for Covid-19. He said, “People of Naxalbari were exploited by the Left Front government for 34 years. The situation deteriorated during the TMC regime.”
Malakar said, “Despite all the odds and adversaries, I have stood by the people through thick and thin. They will vote for me for the third time. Voters have seen through the election gimmicks of the BJP and TMC.”
The constituency, which extends up to the Indo-Nepal border, witnessed the birth of Bengal’s first Naxalite movement in 1967. There is hardly any reminiscence of that peasants’ uprising today but in the last few years, Naxalbari made headlines.
In April 2017, Union home minister Amit Shah had lunch at the home Gita Mahali, a tribal woman, along with Dilip Ghosh the BJP state president.
On May 3 that year, Gita and her husband Raju joined the TMC amid allegations by the BJP that the couple was kidnapped and forced to join the ruling party.
In 2019, Gita, a tea garden worker, was appointed by the state government as a home guard at Naxalbari police station. The constituency has 25 tea gardens where most of the workers are tribal people. Local TMC leaders said the government was helping the Mahalis on humanitarian ground and there was no politics involved.
