Kolkata: Even while having absolute supremacy in almost all the pockets in the state, Trinamool Congress was never able to make any dent in pockets of North Bengal, especially Siliguri, which continued to be the last Left citadel until 2021 when the voters there opted for BJP. Now, Trinamool Congress’s landslide victory in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation polls on Monday has prompted a question. Did repeated demands by several top BJP leaders, MLAs and MPs for separate statehood for north Bengal in the recent past turn into a Waterloo for the saffron camp? ETV Bharat tried to find an answer.
In the last Siliguri Municipal Corporation elections, the Left Front proved that Trinamool Congress can be resisted by a united effort. The Left Front formed the new board in Siliguri then. However, things started changing in favour of the BJP since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and finally in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections BJP’s Shankar Ghosh got elected from the Siliguri assembly constituency.
However, in the 2022 municipal corporation election, the CPI(M)'s strong barricade in Siliguri and the newly earned fort of saffron were both demolished by the irresistible wave of Trinamool Congress. Trinamool Congress won 37 out of 47 wards. What helped Trinamool Congress, led by former state minister, Gautam Deb to win the polls by such a massive margin? To recall, Deb was himself defeated in the 2021 assembly polls from the Siliguri- adjacent Dabgram- Fulbari assembly constituency.
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Political observers are of the opinion that the main reason could be that the recent politics by a section of top BJP leaders, MLAs and MPs demanding separate statehood for north Bengal might have impacted the voters’ sentiments in favour of Trinamool Congress. “The people of West Bengal had always been against forking out a separate state from West Bengal. Otherwise what can be the reason for such results by BJP, since just a few months back in the state assembly elections BJP’s candidate was ahead of his Trinamool Congress’s counterpart in 36 out of 47 wards in Siliguri. However, it is clear that separate statehood politics have pushed BJP to the back-foot this time, which is evident from the results,” said a senior political analyst.
On this issue, ETV Bharat first talked to Gautam Deb, who is all set to become the new mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation. According to him, the main credit of this electoral success in Siliguri goes to the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee and the development activities undertaken by the state government under her leadership. “Our workers had been with the common people during this pandemic period. And what has BJP done except make attempts to divide people? A lot of work needs to be done now. Our dream is to develop Siliguri in the Kolkata model,” he said.
BJP legislator from Siliguri, Shankar Ghosh told ETV Bharat that it was clear that his party had been rejected by the people. “I do not want to blame anyone for this defeat, since we would earn the overall faith of the voters. What BJP needs to do now is to strengthen its own organizational base in and around Siliguri,” he said.
ETV Bharat also contacted the former mayor of the earlier Left Front-controlled Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Ashok Bhattacharya, who had been a long-serving municipal affairs and urban development minister in the earlier Left Front government in West Bengal. “This is our overall defeat and we are bound to accept it. I got defeated from Siliguri in the 2021 assembly elections and so was Gautam Deb. However, we expected to perform better in the recent municipal corporation polls. Had the elections been earlier, probably we could have done better. But surely that cannot be an excuse for our defeat. However, I do not give the entire credit to the development activities by the state government, Trinamool Congress had been successfully able to divide the minority voters in Siliguri and gained statistic advantage out of that,” he said.
