Deb claims Cong grip slipping in north - Trinamul uncontested in three panchayats in South Dinajpur and Malda

June 18: Trinamul has bagged three gram panchayats in South Dinajpur and Malda, prompting party minister Gautam Deb to comment that the Congress’s was losing grip over bastions in north Bengal in areas where Trinamul was making inroads. Trinamul has emerged uncontested in two panchayats in Malda, according to the data with the administration of five north Bengal districts. But going by the figures, it is unclear whether only the Congress’s supposed loss of turf has proved to be Trinamul’s gain. Two of the three gram panchayats that Trinamul has in its bag now were earlier with the CPM. Trinamul was uncontested in all 21 seats in Nowda-Jodupur and all 14 in Mozampur . Both the panchayats are under Kaliachak-I block in Malda, once the stronghold of Congress leader A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury. Nowda-Jodupur was with the CPM, Mozampur was a Congress stronghold. Trinamul was also uncontested in the Damdama panchayat in Gangarampur block of South Dinajpur. The panchayat was with the CPM. “There are six seats in the panchayat, of them Trinamul has five uncontested,” an official of the district administration said in Balurghat today. The party is also uncontested in nine other panchayat seats in the district. “We had fielded candidates in all the six seats but Trinamul, through intimidation, forced them to withdraw in five seats,” said Narayan Biswas, a former minister and CPM leader. “The figures prove the growing popularity of our party in north Bengal. The condition of the Congress is pathetic and that is why it could not field candidates in several seats,” north Bengal development minister Deb said. However, Sourav Prasad, a Congress leader in South Dinajpur, said: “It would be wrong to interpret that we are losing our base in South Dinajpur. Trinamul-backed goons are intimidating our candidates and workers. Many of them have not filed nominations or withdrawn the papers.” Congress leaders in Jalpaiguri, who left around 1,000 seats vacant in the two lower tiers, said they were hopeful of forging a post poll alliance with the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad. “We have willingly left the seats vacant to send a message to the tribal population that our party is interested in forging an alliance,” said Biswaranjan Sarkar, a district Congress leader of Jalpaiguri. “It is incorrect to perceive that we have lost our base.” Deb today said: “We have serious doubts whether the Congress, which used to claim north Bengal as its bastion, can prove this is their support base in the polls. It has become clear that wherever Trinamul is making inroads, the Congress is losing support and could not even find candidates to field,” he added. Trinamul has also bagged two panchayat seats in Metelli block in Jalpaiguri uncontested. The Congress has two panchayat seats at Changmari Tea Estate in Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri. The party is uncontested in one seat at Goalpokhor block in Cooch Behar. The Left Front has two seats on Upper Changmari in Nagrakata block and one seat at Bholardabri in Alipurduar-I block Jalpaiguri district without any contest. In the panchayat samiti in Malda, that has 423 seats, Trinamul has fielded candidates in 419 seats and the Congress in 408 seats. In South Dinajpur, there are two dummy candidates of the Front in the zilla parishad. In the panchayat samiti with 190 seats, the Congress has fielded 134 candidates.