June 9: Trinamul leaders in the
Dooars today said they had held successful talks with John Barla on a
pre-poll alliance for zilla parishad seats, confounding the Akhil
Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad with which the ruling party entered
into a tie-up recently.
On June 4, leaders of Trinamul and
the Parishad, which is staunchly opposed to Barla, announced that they
would share seats in the gram panchayats and panchayat samitis. For the
zilla parishad seats, there had been no understanding between the
Parishad and Trinamul.
According to a
Trinamul leader in Malbazar, the ruling party had decided to field two
of Barla’s associates in the Jalpaiguri zilla parishad which has 37
seats.Trinamul said it wanted Barla in the alliance as it did not want
the tribal votes to split.
Of the 13 blocks
in Jalpaiguri, seven are in the Dooars, where the Parishad has a strong
base because of the high tribal population and the Parishad’s presence
in unions in almost all the tea gardens.
Around 40 per cent
of the 2,346 gram panchayat seats in Jalpaiguri fall in the Dooars. A
similar percentage of the 422 panchayat samiti seats are also in the
Dooars.
The other six
blocks in Jalpaiguri district do not have much of a tribal presence,
therefore the Parishad’s focus is concentrated in the seven blocks of
the Dooars.
Trinamul’s larger
battle is to keep the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha out of the Dooars and
Terai, which the hill party wants included in its proposed Gorkhaland
state.
“We joined hands
with the Parishad for gram panchayat and the panchayat samiti seats. In
each seat, the support base of the Parishad and Trinamul has been
assessed by local leaders of both sides and the candidate has been
selected on the basis of this strength,” said Prabir Chakraborty, a
member of the north Bengal core committee of Trinamul and party’s
observer in the Malbazar subdivision of Jalpaiguri.
Chakraborty added:
“However, in the zilla parishad, it has been decided that Trinamul will
field its candidates in all 37 seats. These candidates would be
supported by John Barla and (his party) the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.”
He said: “Talks have been held with Barla and other leaders on the proposal and they have assented.”
A Trinamul source
said Binod Kuzur and Binod Tigga, both associates of Barla, would be
fielded as Trinamul candidates in the Nagrakata and Banarhat zilla
parishad seats.
The Parishad,
though miffed, is unsure how it should act. If it goes with Trinamul, it
will lose face among its supporters because the outfit has always said
it would have no truck with Barla, who had rebelled against the Parishad
and moved out. Also, Barla has an understanding with the Morcha for the
rural polls, and the Parishad is opposed to the Morcha’s Gorkhaland
demand.
But withdrawing
its candidates when just two days are left for the nomination phase to
end may also not help the Parishad. The outfit would find it difficult
to put up Independent candidates in all the seats now.
“We have our
compulsions about maintaining a distance from Barla and the Morcha for
their agenda of Gorkhaland and inclusion of Dooars and Terai in it…. On
the basis of discussions with Trinamul leaders, we have put up
candidates in the panchayat samitis and gram panchayats,” said Rajesh
Lakra, the general secretary of the north Bengal regional unit of the
Parishad.
“We have no idea on what to do now,” he said.
Barla, disappointed by the tie-up between the Parishad and Trinamul, had asserted that he would campaign against Trinamul.
“This left
Trinamul concerned about division in the tribal vote. The party in a
last-ditch attempt convinced Barla for the zilla parishad alliance.
However, the equations are not very clear as both the Parishad and the
Morcha, are not ready to go by this alliance,” a source in the Dooars
said.
Barla said today:
“We are not concerned about the other allies of Trinamul. As only two
days are left for submission of nominations (the vote in Jalpaiguri is
on July 9), we are simply focusing on filing of nominations by our
candidates in all three tiers. There had been an alliance with Trinamul
but some of our leaders are insisting on fielding candidates under the
JMM banner in the zilla parishad. Talks are going on with Trinamul
leaders and we feel, it would not pose any hindrance to the alliance.”
Asked about the
Morcha tie-up, he said: “We would soon sit and talk to them. Candidates
of Morcha-JMM alliance have already filed nominations in two lower tiers
of the panchayat.”
Morcha leaders in the Dooars said they had no information about the Barla-Trinamul alliance.
“It is unlikely
that Barla or JMM would make such a tie-up when they are in alliance
with us. Our party has made elaborate plans for campaign and the party
president himself (Bimal Gurung) would participate in it across Dooars,”
said Madhukar Thapa, a central committee member of the Morcha from the
Dooars, said.
“We want to make it clear we have no alliance with Trinamul,” he said.
Gautam Deb, the
north Bengal development minister, said Trinamul was fast emerging as
the principal party in Dooars. “We definitely want the support of all
tribal groups. On the other hand, tribal organisations and parties in
the Dooars have realised that they need to have an alliance with
Trinamul for better results in panchayat polls.”
The Telegraph
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