KOLKATA: Kurmi community in poll-bound West Bengal emerges as a major force to decide electoral fate of the ruling Trinamool Congress in nearly 17 to 20 assembly constituencies in the forest belt of four districts -- Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and West Midnapore -- in the southern part of the state.
Aggrieved with the Mamata Banerjee-led government’s alleged indifference to the Kurmi’s long-standing demand for recognition of Schedule Tribe (ST) status has made the community to shift their support to the opposition BJP ahead of the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly elections, which is to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29 respectively.
Assembly constituencies such as Purulia, Joypur, Baghmundi, Balarampur, Bandowan, Manbazar, Kashipur and Para in Purulia district; Raipur, Ranibandh and Taldangra in Bankura district; Jhargram, Gopiballavpur, Binpur and Nayagram in Jhargram district; Salboni, Midnapore Sadar, Keshpur and Kharagpur (Gramin) in Paschim Medinipur district; Balurghat and Harirampur in South Dinajpur; and Kaliaganj in North Dinajpur have a high concentration—around 25 to 30 per cent—of Kurmi voters, who have traditionally favoured the Trinamool Congress since it first came to power in West Bengal in 2011.
Trinamool Congress then bagged 15 seats except Purulia, Joypur, Balarampur, Kashipur, Para, Balurghat and kaliaganj out of these 21 constituencies in the four districts.
Abhijit Katiyar, a Jhargram-based undergraduate law student and a Kurmi activist, said the leadership of several Kurmi organisations have already appealed to several lakhs of voters belonging to the community to vote for the BJP in the coming elections hoping that the party at the Centre would do something for their long-standing demand if it comes to power in Bengal.
“Kurmis can influence the vote bank of the contesting political parties to a great extent because they have more than 25 percent vote share on an average in and around 20 assembly constituencies in the junglemahal of four districts of Bengal,” says Katiyar.
“The Trinamool Congress government has been sitting idle on some clarifications sought by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Union Home Ministry since 2017. We have been demanding the state government to give us ST status as we are under identity crisis in the society. We are being marked as ‘diku’ (outsiders) despite being the son of the soil in Bengal,” he said.
“Usually, the state government sends recommendations in connection with giving approval for ST recognitions to the Kurmi community to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. For our case, the Tribal Affairs ministry forwarded the recommendations to the Home Ministry for verifications. But the state government is still sitting idle on several clarifications raised by the Home Ministry. As a result, we are socially humiliated because of no ST status,” he said.
“In many places particularly land owned by the Kurmis in areas like Bakra in Jhargram and Ayodhya hills in Purulia, Bengal’s most prominent tourist destination, are sold to the private entrepreneurs by land mafias showing false documents keeping the owners in dark,” he alleged. He also said that Kurmi candidates are contesting as independents in Jhargram, Kaliaganj and Harirampur seats.
Ashoke Mahato, an independent contestant from Jhargram seat, said, “Kurmis will definitely pave the way for the victory of the candidates from the constituencies dominated by the community. For instance, Jhargram has around 34 percent Kurmi vote share and I am fighting from the seat representing the community.”
BJP might have some electoral benefits in the 20 assembly seats in the forest belts after the Kurmi organisations decided to shift their support to the saffron party from Trinamool Congress, said Mahato who runs Jangalmahal Swaraj Morcha.
“Our demands for ST status and other social issues are being ignored by the state government for years. We have organised several agitations, including rail blockades urging the state government to respond to the Home Ministry’s clarifications on our issues but they are ignoring it. We have decided to vote for BJP in the coming elections in the state,” said Kaushik Mahato, state president of Kurmi Samaj, West Bengal.