July 30: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alliance has bagged 43 seats in total in all three tiers in Jalpaiguri’s Dooars region, on which the hill party had focused keeping in mind its demand to include the area in the GTA.
“We had to face blatant criticism from a section of political parties for supporting the agenda (of inclusion of the GTA). But the people’s mandate has proved that thousands of them are standing by us and backing our demands,” said John Barla, a dissident leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad heads the JMM in the Dooars.
Trinamul had approached both the Morcha and the JMM to forge a tie-up and prevent division of votes. Mamata Banerjee’s party was also short of tribal and Gorkha faces in the Dooars and the leaders intended to pit popular tribal faces in the panchayat polls in the tea belt, where tribal garden workers outnumber all other sections.
Several rounds of discussions were held but these did not work out as Trinamul, in an aggressive manner, brought in leaders from the Morcha and even close aides of Barla into the party.
“It was a part of Trinamul’s desperate effort to win in maximum possible seats in the Dooars. The strategy, however, did not yield dividends for the party. Trinamul failed to forge a tie-up with the Morcha and the JMM,” political observers said.
The Morcha-JMM combine has secured majority in 13 panchayats in the Dooars and have altogether won in over 250 seats at the lowest rung of the panchayat. Trinamul, on the other hand, secured only seven panchayats.
The party, despite its best efforts, could not secure a single panchayat in the blocks of Malbazar, Metelli and Kalchini, all in the Dooars tea belt. The Morcha-JMM, however, bagged panchayats in six of the seven blocks in the Dooars.
“In the Dooars, Trinamul was driven by a preconceived notion that frequent visits by Mamata Banerjee and addressing social issues would bring them positive results. What the party did not realise was the absence of tribal and Gorkha leaders would cost it,” a political observer said.
“Further, the party’s strategy to induct Morcha and tribal leaders into Trinamul had given a chance to all its political contenders to criticise the party and elaborately speak of its intentions to grab seats. Absence of consistent activities at tea garden levels has also led to such results.”
In the panchayat samitis, the Morcha-JMM won 28 in the total 422 seats in the Dooars. The highest number seats secured by the alliance was in Madarihat, where 10 of their candidates won out of 26 seats. In this tier, Trinamul has won 27 seats in the Dooars and could not bag any panchayat samiti.
“We have gone through the panchayat samiti results. It is evident that in at least two panchayat samitis (Nagrakata and Madarihat), our candidates would play a vital role in forming the samitis. The equation is such that if Trinamul wants to form the samitis, it will have to seek our support,” Barla said.
“Before the polls, we had mentioned that our candidates would prove important. Post-poll, this is a fact. We had hinted that there are chances of a post-poll alliance. In case any proposal comes to us, we would consider it,” the tribal leader said.
In the zilla parishad, the alliance has secured two seats, on each in Metelli and Madarihat, both in the Dooars. Trinamul secured four zilla parishad seats, but could not win in any in the Dooars. All four seats are located in agricultural belts or non-Dooars areas of Jalpaiguri.
0 comments:
Post a Comment