ANALYSIS - After chinks in BJP's armour, can Mamata breach the North Bengal fort?

The results of the recently concluded elections for Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections have proven that BJP’s consecutive successes in the 2019 and 2021 elections have faded out to some extent.

Kolkata:West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's focus is entirely on North Bengal, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP bagged majority seats from North Bengal, which helped the saffron party take its total seat tally in the state to 18. Even during the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, BJP’s performance in North Bengal was far better, compared to its performance in South Bengal, which has historically been Mamata's invincible fort.

Determined to recover the seats lost to the saffron party by 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress has chalked out a strategy to conquer North Bengal. Despite many attempts, TMC has never been able to have an absolute grip on this region after 2011. There were few successes in the north Bengal districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the 2016 state assembly elections. However, those faded out, first in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and then in the 2021 state assembly elections, as BJP established its supremacy in North Bengal in those two elections.

However, the results of the recently concluded elections for Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections have proven that BJP’s consecutive successes in the 2019 and 2021 elections have faded out to a great extent. That is why this is the right time for Mamata Banerjee to start making TMC's base stronger in north Bengal.

In the 2021 state assembly elections, BJP managed to rope in several erstwhile Trinamool Congress leaders and weaken the latter’s organizational strength in this area. Divisive politics played an important role both in the plains and hills of north Bengal in 2021 and this helped the saffron party to attract backward and tribal votes in north Bengal.

However, charged up by the landslide victory in the recently concluded SMC polls, Trinamool Congress has started reorganizing itself in north Bengal. In fact, party sources said that process on this count started soon after the 2021 assembly elections, the positive results of which were reaped in the SMC elections. The recent visit Mamata Banerjee paid to north Bengal was a positive step in this regard.

Her visit yielded positive results and she was been able to win the confidence of the Great Cooch Behar movement leader, Ananata Roy, who had been extremely close to BJP until recently. According to Rajib Roy, a professor of political science, traditionally North Bengal was a fort of the Left Front in real sense.

“In certain pockets of North Bengal Congress was also quite strong. But since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has started showing remarkable performance there. However, before the recent municipal corporation polls, Trinamool Congress was able to gain substantial strength, mainly because of the different developmental projects of the West Bengal government including Lokkhir Bhandar. So if Trinamool Congress wants to hold on to this success in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the state government will have to concentrate more on development in north Bengal,” he said.

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