Mamata Banerjee on three-day tour of Darjeeling, BJP says GTA poll results won’t translate to gains for TMC in LS elections.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) stormed to power in West Bengal over a decade ago and retained power comfortably for two more terms. Despite its dominance all these years, the party had failed to gain a toehold in the Darjeeling Hills. Till now.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which had never had electoral success in the Hills, opened its account in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) elections on June 29 by winning five of the 45 seats. The polls were held after a gap of 10 years. The ruling party’s hand has also been strengthened by the weakening of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which for years was the strongest political force in the Hills, and the landslide victory of Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) that swept the GTA polls by winning 27 seats.
Thapa who was earlier with a pro-TMC faction of the GJM is still viewed to be close to the ruling party and will have to depend on it if it has to implement its agenda of development of the Hills. Last week, Thapa visited the state secretariat to invite Banerjee to Darjeeling to attend his swearing-in ceremony as the GTA chairperson. Banerjee took up the offer and went to the Hills this week for a three-day tour.
“People of the Hills want development, they want peace. That is why they want the GTA. The elections in the Hills have never been so peaceful. GTA polls were held to ensure peace and stability remained in the hills. We want development and prosperity for the Hills. We don’t want violence and disturbance. Please don’t allow the peace and stability of the Hills to get disturbed. If a few leaders try to instigate violence, don’t allow them to do so. If peace and stability remain in the Hills, the economy of the Hills will also get a boost,” the CM said, promising investment in the region.
Thapa too agreed. “Previous leaders blackmailed Darjeeling people. Now, it is time to develop (the region). The Hill region needs huge developmental works.”
The GTA chief then accompanied Banerjee, state minister Aroop Biswas, and actor Saheb Chattopadhyay to the inauguration of Darjeeling Coffee House where the CM sang Rabindrasangeet. On the way to the cafe, the CM, in a jovial mood, stopped by a roadside stall run by a women’s self-help group. There she made “phuchkas (as ‘paanipuri’ is called in Bengal)” and gave them to children who had gathered to watch her.
A senior TMC leader said, “Now, the challenge is to continue this success till the Lok Sabha election. We hope that the people of Darjeeling enjoy the fruits of development in the next two years. That may give us dividends in the general elections.”
But the ruling party has a tough task ahead of it, given that the BJP has held the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency since 2009 and is a potent force in the region. Darjeeling MP Raju Bista hit out at the TMC, saying the GTA election was an “inter-TMC contest” and “a forceful imposition of a body that nobody wants or desires other than the TMC and their minions”. The BJP boycotted the election along with the GJM led by Bimal Gurung.
Asked if the results had opened a door for the TMC in the Hills and would help it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bista said, “This result will help the TMC as much as it helped them after the conclusion of the GTA Agreement after the first GTA Sabha was sworn in. After the GTA Sabha was sworn in again in 2013, they (TMC) ran the GTA Sabha using their proxy Board of Administrators from 2017 to 2021. TMC can paint a pretty picture and live in a delusion all it wants, but the fact is that people in the region will never support the TMC.”
The GTA was set up in 2012 following years of agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland. It came into being following the GTA Agreement of July 2011 signed by the state government, the Union government, and the GJM. In the first GTA polls in 2012, the GJM led by Gurung won all the seats without much contest. But things changed five years later following a violent agitation for Gorkhaland that lasted for more than 100 days. It split the GJM, forced Gurung to flee the Hills as he faced a barrage of cases, and pushed Thapa and GJM leader Binay Tamang, now the TMC’s man in the Hills, to start a dialogue with the ruling party.
Source:indianexpress.com