Mamata Banerjee may have to watch blithely as CPM looks too strong to give in

JALPAIGURI : If Mahendra Roy wins the Jalpaiguri seat in 2014, then there’s nothing that Mamata Banerjee can do about it, except go on hoping that this predominantly Left fort will collapse as miraculously as the Writers’ Buildings did in 2011.

But the chances of that happening are slim because Roy is son of the soil and is therefore very well known. The CPM has retained this seat since 1980, and its vote bank in 2009 almost equalled the strength of the BJP, Trinamool and the Congress put together.

Of course, there has been an erosion in Left votes since 2011, and the Trinamool has made efforts to come out strongly and some 80,000 Nepali voters in Jalpaiguri Sadar, Fulbari, Dabgram areas will most probably vote for the BJP this time because of a tie-up with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha.

Still, the Left is the overwhelming favourite and that is largely because the CPM still retains supreme organisation strength in the place and is present in the remotest of villages everywhere in the district, which is in fact one of the few surviving places in West Bengal where the Marxists can boast of a resounding presence. The CPM’s other big advantage is that the majority of the population has anti-Gorkhaland sentiments.

The worry for Roy is that in earlier CPM strongholds like Dhupguri and Mainaguri, there has been massive erosion in its support base. The failure of the potato crop, which is a major produce in these parts, because of storage issues has led to some anti-CPM feelings as well. The residual population of Bangladeshi intruders in the border areas, who had been given voter cards by the CPM earlier, has also shifted allegiance to the Trinamool — a cause for distress within the CPM.

Otherwise, the majority of some 1.75 lakh adivasis working in tea gardens are expected to vote for Roy, except those who, under the leadership of one John Barla, will support the BJP, because John is close to the saffron party. The Congress’ Sukh Bilas Verma isn’t much known and the Trinamool, due to its intra-party bickering, isn’t too great a favourite either among the masses. Roy is confident of winning .

“My knowledge is not based on books. I know the soil of Jalpaiguri, its people and their problems,” he said. The Congress stuck to the same theme the party has had for ages. “The CPM could not do anything here in the last 34 years and will not be able to do anything also for the next five years. Therefore, the people must bring about a change here,” said Verma.