TMC wrests Ghani Khan’s Malda, BJP gains toehold

Malda: The shifting sands in the fief of legendary ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury in the recent West Bengal rural polls have unsettled the political equation in this district — a Congress bastion that survived the winds of change both in the 2011 and 2016 assembly polls.
The ruling Trinamool has made impressive dents at the grassroots in Muslim-dominated areas of Ghani Khan’s Sujapur, under Kaliachak assembly segment, and also in Congress MP Mousam Noor’s home turf of Ratua in North Malda, fuelling speculation in party ranks of her joining Trinamool.Mousam Noor, also the Malda district Congress president, reserved her comment.
Trinamool’s inroads in the traditional Congress vote banks of this Muslim-dominated district — where they comprise 49.72% of the population — has led to a counter polarisation of Hindu votes among Rajbanshis, Namasudras, Mandals and tribals in Manikchak, Habibpur, Gazole and parts of Englishbazar. Some of these areas, particularly Gazole, had been Left bastions.
The polarisation, however, didn’t play out under Baishnabnagar assembly segment that voted BJP in the 2016 polls. Here, Congress fielded a non-Muslim candidate, preventing BJP from cashing in on religious polarisation.
A peek at BJP’s Malda party office shows the trend. Prabhati Murmu, winner of Raniganj gram panchayat seat under Gazole block and the probable pradhan, was forced to leave her home on May 17 and take refuge in the party office. She is eight-months pregnant and can’t risk staying at home. “Trinamool miscreants came to our home and threatened to set the house on fire if we didn’t join the party,” said Prabhati’s husband Palan.
Panchayat samity seat winner Archana Mandal too met with a similar plight. She came down to the BJP district party office with her 3-year-old daughter Ananya as “I have been getting threats since I got a BJP ticket to fight the panchayat samity elections”.
“I stuck to my decision and fought the polls and won from Chaknagar by 286 votes. Trinamool miscreants threatened to abduct my child. I had no option but to leave for the party office with my daughter, leaving husband Animesh back home,” Archana said.
Prabhati and Archana are not exceptions. Others such as Barun Mandal, Bina Mandal, Rintu Ghosh from Manikchak too have turned the BJP office into a temporary “political refugee camp”. Families rest on mattresses spread on the floor while mothers tend to the kids and others make toys with newspapers for the children. Their food comes from a big pot placed on a big oven in one corner of the room. The door is opened only after verifying the guest’s identity.
Unlike other districts, the level of religious polarisation in some Malda blocks is such that these candidates may face pressure from villagers if they want to buy peace by switching political loyalties.
Malda BJP leader Manabendra Chakraborty fears the post-panchayat poll tension will continue until rural boards are formed. “We can’t just disown our men and women. They showed guts to fight the polls. At the same time, it is beyond our means to run the common kitchen for long and provide shelter to all the winners. We have informed higher-ups at the state and national levels,” he said.
At present, there are 200-odd such “victims” at the BJP office while many others have taken shelter with their families in Jharkhand.
The ruling Trinamool, however, has denied the charge. “Our party workers haven’t threatened anyone. Instead, many of the BJP winners have expressed their wish to join TMC after election. The increasing willingness to join our fold has created panic among the BJP leadership. Their leaders have thus herded many BJP winners to district party offices to prevent them from joining Trinamool,” said Malda Trinamool leader Amal Bhaduri.