Why a Diwali meeting has TMC rattled: BJP visitors, a CPM veteran & panchayat poll calculus | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express

BJP's Raju Bista & Sankar Ghosh meet Ashok Bhattacharya, who once stitched together a “Siliguri Model” with Congress for civic polls; TMC alleges bid to “destabilise” its government.

BJP’s Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and Siliguri MLA Sankar Ghosh met Bhattacharya, a former mayor of Siliguri and ex-state minister, on Monday. Both sides claimed it was a courtesy visit, but it did not convince the TMC. The timing of the meeting and Bhattacharya’s stature have sparked speculation on the future equation between the BJP and the Left at a time the saffron party is trying to consolidate its position in north Bengal ahead of the panchayat polls next year.

As the contest between the TMC and the BJP is much closer in north Bengal than in the rest of the state, some political observers believe that a leader of Bhattacharya’s stature can disrupt the ruling party’s plans. The BJP swept the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in north Bengal, winning seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats in the region. The other seat went to the Congress. Though the BJP’s performance in the Assembly elections last year was not as well as it would have hoped for, it still bagged 30 of the 54 seats in the eight north Bengal districts. The TMC won 23 constituencies while the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Tamang) secured one seat. The ruling party managed to pull things back in the civic body polls held this March. It won 102 of 108 municipalities across the state and in north Bengal, it lost only the Darjeeling Municipality elections to the Humro Party.

In the three-tier panchayat polls, Opposition parties often come together to form an alliance at the grassroots to defeat the ruling dispensation, notwithstanding the party line at the national and state levels. Local leaders often adopt their own strategies to form boards in Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zilla Parishads.

This is where, the TMC believes, Bhattacharya comes in. A five-time MLA, he was the minister for urban development and municipal affairs in the Left Front government. He is soft-spoken and politically astute and still wields influence in the region despite the downturn in his party’s electoral fortunes and also his own.

“There is a conspiracy going on to destabilise the government, especially in the northern part of the state. It may be noted that BJP leaders have been demanding a separate state for the people in north Bengal,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said on Tuesday, referring to the demand raised by several BJP leaders for a separate state or Union Territory for the people of north Bengal. They allege that the Mamata Banerjee government has deprived the region despite being in power for over a decade, but central BJP leaders have not yet reciprocated the sentiment.

https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/whdiwali-tmc-bjp-ashok-bhattacharya-siliguri-panchayat-polls-8231488/


Post ID: 6d74731f-5412-4f3b-bdfb-1b751e3e8879
Rating: 5
Created: 1 year ago
Your ad can be here
Create Post

Similar classified ads


News's other ads