KOLKATA MAY 4: Giving Chattradhar Mahato, the former Maoist leader and now a TMC leader in a place of prominence in Jungelmahal politics and enforcing various populist schemes like Duare Sarkar, Paraye Paraye Samadhan, Swasthya Sath, and other techniques of state government, etc. seemed to have worked in favour of Trinamool Congress in the In the Jungelmahal region consisting of Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore ,Bishnupur TMC has snagged 25 seats out of 40 seats while BJP won 15 seats.
Incidentally, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP, which won majority seats had a lead in Jhargram, West Midnapore, Purulia Bankura, and Bishnupur Assembly constituencies.
Political observers feel that BJP’s ploy to go for Hindutva ideology did not cut ice with the tribal population, which takes pride in its own traditional cultural and religious glory.
Biswanath Chakraborty, senior political analysts, said, “It seems that Mahato has been able to control the internal feud in the Jungelamahal region and working hard to get the confidence of the voters there.”
Chhatradhar Mahato, who was in jail for ten years, was released last year on February 3. He was made TMC’s spokesperson. Just before the Assembly election, NIA arrested him after he was found one of the accused in an 11-year-old murder case. In March, the Union ministry of home affairs asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to reopen an 11-year-old murder case in which Mahato was one of the accused. This seemed to have angered the tribal population against the BJP. There are four assembly seats in Jhargram, while in West Midnapore, Purulia and in Bankura, there are 15, 9, and 12 seats, respectively. These 40 constituencies form Jangalmahal. The Santhals are the dominant community here, comprising 51.8 per cent of the total Scheduled Tribe population in the state.
It may be mentioned that BJP state president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has canceled their scheduled rallies in March at Jhargram.
According to statistics received from the chief electoral office (CEO), West Bengal, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP received 20 per cent votes from the Jungelmahal districts. However, in the 2016 Assembly elections, the BJP’s vote share came down to 17%. However, in 2018 Panchayat election, the BJP gained strength as it received 27 per cent of the votes polled in all these constituencies.
In the 2018 Panchayat election, which was held in May, Trinamool Congress suffered a maximum loss in Jhargram, Bankura, and Purulia, close to the Jharkhand border, as the BJP won in almost 30-40% of
the Panchayat seats. According to statistics from the state election commission, AITC lost 28 out of the 79 Gram Panchayats in the area. In the 16 Zila Parishad seats in Jhargram, the BJP secured three seats and the AITC 13.
In the Panchayat Samiti at Jhargram, BJP secured two seats in the Panchayat elections, while the remaining six seats were snagged by AITC. At the gram panchayat level, BJP secured 329 seats, while the Trinamool Congress received 372 seats. At Balarampur in Purulia, out of 20 Panchayat Samiti seats, BJP secured 18 seats.
Bibha Das, a resident of Balarampur, Purulia, said: “In this Lok Sabha elections, apart from polarisation between Hindus and Muslims, a section of tribal population is not in favour of the ruling Trinamool Congress they have failed to look after the welfare of the tribals. The living condition of tribals has not improved much despite Mamata
Banerjee’s efforts to start various schemes for all sections of the people in Bengal.”
In areas like Jhargram and Purulia, the BJP got more than 40 per cent of the Gram Panchayat seats. In Jhargram, BJP won 329 Gram Panchayats, not far behind AITC’s 372 seats. At Balarampur in Purulia, BJP secured 18 out of 20 Panchayat Samiti seats.
What tribal leaders say
According to Shantiram Mahato, TMC MLA of Jhargram, BJP failed to address the problems of the tribal communities. The tribal leaders believe in Sarna Dharma (worshipping nature), but they tried to preach Hindu Dharma to people amid Jai Shri Ram slogan. This has angered a section of the tribal leaders. Moreover, the BJP leaders have taken few tribal leaders to Kolkata for conducting Tarpan. This was not prevalent in their religion. The cut money scam that BJP was projecting to people did not cut ice with most of the tribal population. They have received benefits from the state government’s schemes, and 90 percent of problems have been solved under the
Duare Sarkar schemes of the state government. This has accelerated TMC’s win in the Jungelmahal region.
Similarly, Kurmis, another dominant tribe, also voted against the BJP after their demand to include them in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category was not fulfilled. They are also fighting for the official recognition of Sarna Dharma.
In 1913, when India was under British rule, the Kurmis were listed in the ST category. However, they were dropped from the list on September 6, 1950. They are currently on the OBC (B) list and are demanding ST status.
On the other side, in North Bengal, which is known as the BJP’s stronghold, the TMC won 28 of the total 54 seats while the remaining 26 went to the BJP.
Moreover, setting up of various tribal boards, recognition of Santhali language are some of the things that snagged TMC to win the hearts of the tribal population.
What BJP leaders say
According to BJP leaders, they need to see what went wrong with them despite getting a significant amount of vote share in the Jungelmahal a region in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The strategies that BJP leaders, especially the cut, have taken money scam and the corruption did not create an impact on the minds of the voters, and there is a need to introspect the reasons for the failure.
Dilip Ghosh, BJP state president, said, “We need to see what went wrong. But yes, we have to admit that we could not connect with the masses the way TMC did, and we will rectify our mistakes in the upcoming days.”