Cong drought in tea belt

June 16: The Congress has not fielded candidates in more than 1,000 seats in the two lower tiers of the panchayat in Jalpaiguri district, raising doubts whether its support base has dwindled. The Congress said it had left vacant 1,052 seats — 931 in panchayats and 121 in panchayat samitis — for the convenience of entering into an alliance with regional parties. But political observers said the emergence of regional parties and the growth of Trinamul, especially in the Dooars, had weakened the Congress. The final lists of candidates published by the district administration on Friday show that the Congress is contesting in 1,415 of 2,346 seats in gram panchayats and 301 of 422 seats spread across all 13 panchayat samitis. “The data point to the Congress’s downfall in Jalpaiguri district, especially in the tea belt where the party has fielded less candidates. This is largely because the Congress’s trade union, Intuc, has grown weaker in tea gardens. The trade union base of the Left Front constituents has also eroded, but they could find adequate candidates for gram panchayat and panchayat samiti seats,” said an observer. In the Dooars, the panchayat elections are largely fought on the basis of the strength of tea garden unions. Since the last panchayat election in 2008, the PTWU, the union backed by the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, and John Barla’s splinter tribal group that has joined the JMM have made inroads. The Parishad came into prominence because of the Gorkhaland movement, which it vociferously continues to oppose. Trinamul, which does not have union presence in the Dooars gardens, has of late reported that tribals from other parties were drifting towards it. In 2008, the Congress had won 360 panchayat seats and 54 seats in panchayat samitis. A Congress leader who didn’t want to be named admitted to the party’s dwindling support base in the Dooars. “The trade unions of new outfits like the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had eaten into the cadre base of the Intuc in the tea belt. That is why the party couldn’t field enough candidates for the last two tiers of the panchayat system,” said the Congress leader. Officially, the Congress refuted the theory that the party was contesting lesser seats because of loss of strength. “It would be wrong to say our support base has weakened in some parts of the district. As part of our strategy, we have left these seats vacant so that an alliance can be forged with regional organisations even after the nomination process,” said Biswaranjan Sarkar, a former district president of the Congress. But Sarkar couldn’t clarify why the 1,052 seats were left vacant when the Parishad hasn’t fielded candidates in so many seats.