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In Bengal’s Ranibandh, BJP tribal leader faces tough fight
The constituency is reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community and goes to the polls on March 27 in the first of the eight-phase elections in the state. It was a CPI(M) stronghold and the party held it from 1977 to 2016
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), are involved in a tough fight in the Ranibandh assembly in West Bengal’s Bankura district, where Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a rally and attacked chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday. The constituency is reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community and goes to the polls on March 27 in the first of the eight-phase elections in the state.
Located about 230 km from Kolkata, Ranibandh was a CPI(M) stronghold. The party held the seat from 1977 to 2016. The BJP has fielded Khudiram Tudu against CPI (M)’s Debalina Hembram, who won the seat in 2006 and retained it in 2011, and the TMC’s Jyotsna Mandi. Madi defeated Hembram in 2016.
Tudu, a national general secretary of BJP’s ST Morcha is credited with strengthening the party before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state. The BJP wrested 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. The TMC’s tally came down from 34 to 22. Tudu lost the 2016 assembly polls from Ranibandh.
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The BJP’s performance in tribal areas in 2019 contributed largely to its success with the party bagging two seats in Bankura district by eroding TMC’s base. In the adjoining Purulia district, the BJP wrested another seat with a sizeable tribal population.
The tribals accounted for the state’s 5.8% population (5.29 million), according to the 2011 census. They are concentrated in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, South Dinajpur, West Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia. Of the state’s 294 seats, 16 are reserved for STs.
Hembram, who became a minister in the Left Front government in 2006, is known for her oratory skills. She was the only woman speaker at the CPI(M)’s rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds on February 28. While addressing the audience in Bengali and Santhali, Hembram said, “It is time to turn around.”
The Left Front ruled the state for 34 years before Banerjee swept to power in 2011.
Mandi hopes to retain the seat with Banerjee campaigning for her in Bankura on a wheelchair days after the chief minister was hurt after filing her nomination papers.
Tudu insisted his victory is just days away. “Shah and other senior leaders are campaigning in Bankura district. The BJP is in a comfortable position in this region. Our victory is assured. People are tired of corruption during the TMC regime. They simply do not speak out,” Tudu said.
