Siliguri, 21st October: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be giving utmost importance to North Bengal in view of the forthcoming West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021.
That is mainly why the party’s national president Jagat Prakash Nadda recently came to Siliguri, during his one-day visit to North Bengal. He met the top BJP leaders in North Bengal to discuss the upcoming assembly election strategy and to intensify organizational activities in the region.
In particular, the BJP seems to be trying to dominate Bengal by using North Bengal as a stepping stone. Due to the victory of BJP in 7 out of 8 seats in North Bengal in the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has set a goal to secure 50 out of 54 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
But the situation of the BJP during the last Lok Sabha and the current situation is very different. Political observers say that many of the BJP’s actions and decisions have disillusioned most of the people of the region. Especially as the promises made in the election manifesto during the last Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha by-elections, where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha – Bimal Gurung faction and other allies jointly helped BJP win, have not been fulfilled yet.
Fugitive GJM leader Narendra Kambang issued a statement asserting that he expects nothing more than a separate state of Gorkhaland from the BJP. He also lashed out at the BJP saying that the GJM, under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, solely supported the BJP in the election for Gorkhaland. In addition, GJM – Bimal faction, who is considered BJP’s closest ally in Darjeeling, does not seem to be happy with the party too.
In addition to this, the recent statement of GJM – Bimal faction of the Mirik sub-divisional committee at a press conference also depicts that the people in the hills are losing faith in the BJP.
Apart from this, BJP’s ally Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) in the last Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha has also suggested BJP do more concrete work than mere assurance. In addition to this, the statement made by the party’s spokesperson Govinda Chhetri urging the BJP to turn their promise of providing a permanent political solution in the hills to reality seems to showcase the increasing the distance of CPRM and BJP.
In such a situation, the BJP has to either fulfil its pre-election promise or else it winning assembly seats in the Darjeeling hills might turn out to be a distant dream for the party. Sources say, the BJP is facing a similar situation in some parts of North Bengal too.