How North Bengal rejected BJP's separate state ploy; Mamata Banerjee swept saffron bastion

After the miserable defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2021 Bengal elections, one of the key demands of the saffron party has been a separate state or union territory for North Bengal. However, in the recently held rural polls in Siliguri and Gorkha territorial Council elections, the residents of North Bengal have rejected any divisive politics and voted for development.

North Bengal has a past of violent protests and also separatist movements over the demand for a separate state. The demography of North Bengal including the hills and the plains is different from the other parts of West Bengal because of the presence of several scheduled caste groups like Gorkhas in the hills and Rajbanshis in the plains. While the BJP thought that bringing up the issue of a separate state will allow them to hold power in north Bengal, A significant section of their voters showed increasing disenchantment with this idea.

A quick look into the results

Trinamool Congress won all 22 Gram panchayat seats and 8 of the nine seats in the Siliguri Mahukuma Parishad in the rural elections in the city. BJP emerged in a distant second place, while Congress and Left Front came in fourth place. Trinamool, which won by a landslide margin in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections in February, has now won a majority in the Siliguri rural elections for the first time. Since 2011, the TMC had not prevailed in the local elections in Siliguri. Trinamool had lost in the most recent elections for rural bodies to the Left. 

Earlier, it was a Left bastion but after the emergence of the BJP, the north Bengal witnessed the most significant rise of the saffron party among all the other parts of Bengal. In the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, the BJP won all five seats in Darjeeling and Siliguri districts.

Similarly, the residents of Darjeeling hills have rejected the violent politics of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha led by Bimal Gurung. The eight-month-old Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha emerged as the winners in the GTA polls. The party bagged 26 of the 45 seats, Trinamool congress open its account in GTA and won 5 seats, newly formed Hamro Party received 8 seats. 

After the defeat of the BJP and its partner Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in the recently held civic polls of Darjeeling, both the parties decided not to fight the GTA election. Similarly, the GJM did not fight the elections but supported the independent candidates. 

While the key ploy of the Bharatiya Janata Party in north Bengal has been the demand for a separate state, the GJM is considered a party which only focuses on the issue of separate Gorkhaland and indulges in violent protests. Vinay Gurung the chief of GJM absconded for years as the Bengal police booked him under UAPA.

Understanding BJP's rise and fall in North Bengal

Subhash Ghising formed the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), which has historically been the main political organisation in Darjeeling. A division of the GNLF announced the establishment of GJM in 2007. Both of these parties share a similar philosophy on politics. Bengal's hills have a drastically distinct political climate from the rest of the state. The demand for a separate Gorkhaland, which would mean a state for the Gorkhas, has always been the key issue of the traditional hill parties of Bengal.

The Darjeeling district, along with other regions of North Bengal, was transformed into the Bharatiya Janata Party's bastion with the help of the GNLF's local backing. The BJP first won the Darjeeling Loksabha in 2009, and in 2021 it won all five assembly seats. One of the few Bengal districts where the Bharatiya Janata Party has held control since 2009 is Darjeeling. 

But the from civic polls which were held a few months back it became clear that the BJP is losing its ground in the hills. The decision of the BJP and its ally not to fight the GTA election also proves the point. 

A key area in Bengal's electoral politics is North Bengal. Out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, eight are in the region.

Rajbangshis and Gorkhas make up a major portion of the Bharatiya Janata Party's voter base. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won a record 18 seats from Bengal out of a total of 42. In north Bengal, the party won seven of the eight seats. In the eight districts in north Bengal, the saffron party won 30 of the assembly's 54 seats in 2021.

However, in the recently held civic and rural polls of Siliguri, the BJP lost miserably.

Why is there disenchantment over separate North Bengal demand

Recently home minister Amit Shah held a massive rally at North Bengal‘s Matigara Naxalbari area. From this meeting the MLA of the area Anandmoy Burman raised the issue of a separate state for North Bengal. 

According to the sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leadership of Kolkata is not happy with this decision. The fear is that they will lose the support of people across Bengal if the party raises the issue of Bengal division. The results of North Bengal show that the voters of the BJP are not aligning with the demand for a separate state or union territory for the north Bengal.  

The political analysts of Bengal believe that the issue of Gorkhaland and a separate state for North Bengal is nothing new. All the political parties have repeatedly used these issues to just create hype and forced the people of North Bengal into violent protests. At the end of the day, neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor the ruling parties of Bengal have worked on the real development of these districts. After the Covid pandemic which has caused havoc in the tourism sector which is the key source of economy in north Bengal the people now want to focus on welfare and development.

How BJP's organisational crisis and infighting have caused defeat in North Bengal

The organisational condition of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal is deplorable. Every other day senior leaders of the BJP leave the party and join the TMC. Amid all these developments the party has also decided to sideline the key leaders who built the organisation and the grassroots strength of the BJP.

For example, recently the central leadership of the BJP asked former Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh to stay silent in front of the media. Ghosh is considered one of the key leaders who held the organisation in the north Bengal strongly. In the towns and villages, Ghosh is much more popular than any other regional leader. Secondly, he has a good relationship with all the sections of the party. He has also been a troubleshooter and today the Bengal unit is left with no troubleshooter.