KOLKATA: The second phase of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal due April 26 comes on the heels of the Calcutta High Court order on the teacher recruitment scam which declared the appointment of over 24,000 teachers illegal. Three constituencies — Darjeeling, Balurghat and Raiganj — have a sizeable number of such candidates.
Among the three, Darjeeling will witness the most interesting contest: a veritable BJP versus BJP. BJP MP Raju Bista is pitted against Kurseong party MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma who is contesting as an independent.
In 2009, BJP’s Jaswant Singh won the Lok Sabha election, backed by Bimal Gurung and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, riding the Gorkhaland wave. This was the lone seat that the BJP won in West Bengal. Since then the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat has been in the BJP grip with the party promising to resolve the Gorkha impasse.
S S Ahluwalia won the seat in 2014 followed by Raju Bista in 2019. BJP MLA from Kurseong BP Sharma revolted against the party and is contesting as an Independent candidate this LS election from Darjeeling.
TMC’s Gopal Lama will be contesting against Raju Bista. Gopal Lama, 70, is a retired civil servant and leader of the Bhartiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM). A TMC candidate from Darjeeling, Lama served as OSD in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) until 2017 after retiring in 2014.
The key issues plaguing Darjeeling include separate statehood for Gorkhaland, tea workers’ issues and pollution. For many years, the push for a separate state of Gorkhaland has been a significant issue. In 2017, tensions escalated with a violent 100-day protest that resulted in 11 fatalities. Since 2009, BJP has consistently won Darjeeling with the backing from the hills, pledging a lasting solution to the region’s problems.
“The people of north Bengal do not want to listen to Mamata Banerjee’s promises anymore. The more she comes here, the more her party will lose the votes. The TMC is knee-deep in corruption. Their ally in the hills, the BGPM, also indulged in corruption while running the GTA,” said BJP’s Bista.
In Balurghat, the TMC has intensified its efforts to get hold of the seat which it lost in 2019. BJP Sukanta Majumder is trying to woo people with the railway projects that the Union government has planned for the constituency.
The TMC has fielded cabinet minister Biplab Mitra to wrest the seat. PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have addressed public rallies in Balurghat, indicating the importance of the seat.
In Raigunj, the battle in 2019 went the BJP way. Debasree Chaudhuri won it by over 60,000 votes. However, this time the party has fielded her from the Kolkata Dakshin seat and given the ticket for Raiganj to Kartick Paul, a greenhorn in electoral politics. In a four-cornered contest between the BJP, Trinamool Congress, Left Front, and the Congress in 2014, CPM’s Md Salim, who is the current state secretary and a politburo member of the party, was elected by a thin margin of 1,500 votes.
In 2009, Congress and TMC shared seats against the Left Front and the BJP. Congress’ Deepa Dasmunsi won the seat by over one lakh votes.
Two factors can brighten up the BJP’s poll prospects. After winning the seat in 2019, the BJP also performed commendably in the 2021 assembly elections, winning four of the 7 seats. The remaining went to the ruling Trinamool Congress. Another factor that might help the BJP is the Trinamool’s choice of candidate. Krishna Kalyani, the party candidate, switched sides after the Assembly elections in 2021. In its campaigns, the BJP questions the political morality of Kalyani for contesting as a Trinamool candidate while keeping his BJP MLA status intact. The Congress has fielded Ali Imran Ramz a.k.a. Victor, a comparatively young face.
