Jhargram, Apr 17 (PTI) An otherwise nondescript road intersection in the erstwhile Maoist hotbed of Lalgarh, Dalilpur Chowk, is hardly a location deserving mention in the pages of history books. Except, it isn’t.
Back in 2008, it was at this junction that the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), the thinly armed militia of the CPI (Maoist), set up their final roadblock to stop police and central forces from advancing any further into the forest-covered region, with gun-totting men providing them cover in broad daylight.
A perfect point of ambush, several critical anti-Maoist operations were carried out by the paramilitary troops around this place to flush out the militants and restore law and order in the so-called “liberated zone”.
Some 17 years later, the point is hardly recognisable with metalled thoroughfares replacing the murram roads, a mark of the development works carried out during the early years of TMC rule, which stormed to power in West Bengal in 2011.
Yet, sitting at the passenger shade at one corner of the intersection, Pradipta Mahata (name changed on request), an active TMC worker, wore a glum look.
“It is difficult to see things falling apart,” Mahata said, attributing the party’s “slide” in the area to factional fights germinating from coteries of local leadership.
The Jhargram assembly segment, of which Lalgarh is part, in the tribal belt of Jangalmahal (local idiom for the forest-covered central Bengal region), has remained in TMC’s grip since 2011. The region will go to the polls in the first phase on April 23.
That dominance, according to TMC insiders, faces its greatest challenge in a decade with the BJP making sharp inroads.
“Look at the development activities in the region undertaken by the Mamata Banerjee administration. The primary hospital in Lalgarh now has 30 beds, with good doctors attending patients, seats at the nursing college are full, and thanks to the bridge on the Kangsabati river, Lalgarh is no longer a remote hamlet,” Mahata said, listing an ITI, polytechnic, a D.Ed college for tribal, and three model schools built by the government.
“Yet all of that seems to be coming to nought, simply because some local leaders formed groups by ignoring and isolating the vast majority of dedicated party workers and attracting people’s disillusionment. What’s baffling is that the party’s top leadership chose to overlook,” he said.
The TMC has shifted its Jhargram MLA Birbaha Hansda to the adjacent Binpur seat, replacing her with Mangal Soren, a law officer at Sadhu Ramchand Murmu University. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha polls on a JMM ticket.
Hansda, a former actor in Santhali films, served as a minister in the TMC government and is considered close to the party supremo. It’s her organisational leadership in Jhargram, though, that has been repeatedly questioned by a section of TMC workers, apparently prompting them to go inactive or switch camps.
To tackle the situation, the TMC has reactivated Chhatradhar Mahata, a former PCAPA leader who spent nearly 13 years in prison in two phases for his alleged involvement in Maoist violence.
Mahata had played an active role in helping the TMC recover from its 2019 Lok Sabha setbacks in Jangalmahal, where the BJP had won Jhargram and most adjoining seats. However, he was seen distancing himself from organisational activities after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“I have no hesitation in saying that there has been politics of loot in Jhargram over the past few years. Had 60 per cent of the funds allotted by the state government reached the people, the BJP would not have found a footing here. I also think the party’s top leadership failed to effectively monitor the use of funds,” he told PTI.
“I am back because the TMC leadership requested me. I will do my bit to restore equilibrium within the organisation here, but I hope it is not too late,” he said.
TMC’s Jhargram assembly election committee chairperson Prasun Sarangi, however, asserted that the development works done by the state government over the years will trump other aspects.
“The massive development that happened in Lalgarh is strongly visible. The thing is, the TMC’s organisation has also grown manifold, and some people are aggrieved. But, I think people trust Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and they will vote for the TMC’s development works,” he said, adding that the party is working to overcome whatever organisational weaknesses it has ahead of the polls.
The BJP, however, thinks the “disgust” that people of Jhargram had with the CPI(M) 15 years ago is going to dominate election sentiments against the TMC this time.
Debasish Banerjee, who carried the TMC’s mantle in Lalgarh till 2023, is now the president of one of the BJP’s mandals.
“The BJP has done nothing to gain people’s trust in the area so far. It’s just that there’s no love lost between the TMC and the people here, and the voters see us as the only viable alternative. That’s exactly what happened with the Left in 2011 here,” he said.
Banerjee said he continues to carry 33 criminal cases on his back till today, all of which were slapped on him by the erstwhile Left Front government during the days of Maoist violence.
“That was the act of a vindictive government. But what has the TMC done? It never even gave us financial assistance to fight such a huge number of cases, let alone withdraw them,” he said. PTI SMY SOM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.