For the ruling party in the state, Trinamool Congress, the development of the tea and agriculture zone is the main issue in the Jalpaiguri district prior to the assembly elections this year. The ruling party has several hot issues in the district, including the launch of a super specialty hospital, the opening of a circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court, a medical college, and a water project in Jalpaiguri. There are also projects related to roads and bridges. These issues are going to be the main tools for the TMC in the election campaign this time. However, the intra-party factionalism has made the ruling party uncomfortable. The collection of parties in the opposition is desperately trying to create a negative attitude among the people towards the ruling party by highlighting the conflict among the TMC leaders in the minds of the voters.

Large parts of Jalpaiguri district’s Mal, Nagarakata and Dhupguri assembly constituencies consist of tea gardens. There are also some tea gardens in the areas under the Rajganj assembly constituency. There are many tea workers in all these tea gardens. Rajbangshi and tribal votes become a big factor in any election here. Hence, all the political parties keep this factor on the calculation tables and their leaders weigh their words and decide the strategy of political struggle accordingly.

In the last assembly elections of 2016, the Congress had won only the Jalpaiguri seat out of the seven seats in the district. The Trinamool Congress won the remaining six seats. But the rise of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 has put a lot of pressure on the grassroots of other parties. Ever since winning the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has been looking forward to reshaping their organization at the district level.

Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC

In addition to highlighting various central projects, the BJP Jalpaiguri district unit is also labeling charges pertaining to terrorism and financial irregularities against the ruling party.

The prolonged absence of the Congress MLA in the Covid19 situation has fermented anger in the area. The Congress MLA from Jalpaiguri has already said that he will not stand for election this time. So the Congress has to find an acceptable face to survive in the seat.

A few days ago, in the TMC circle, after the removal of Jalpaiguri municipality chairman Mohan Basu and the appointment of Papia Pal as the administrator, the conflict between district president Kisan Kalyani and Mohan Basu came to light. The illness of Mohan Basu has also been a cause of worry for Jalpaiguri TMC. The ruling party is currently uncomfortable in this regards. This adds to the problems of intra-party trust & opportunism faced by TMC at the local level, in a situation where many leaders like Suvendu Adhikari, Rajeeb Banerjee and others have jumped boat into the BJP.

Earlier, Jalpaiguri district was a stronghold of the Left front. Even after the Trinamool came to power, the Congress had a formidable influence in this district. The Left-Congress alliance has been taking joint action for a long time to turn around in that district. They want to move forward in alliance in the assembly elections. If the chemistry between the workers of both the parties works properly, then the political circles think that there is a strong possibility of a political mishap for TMC in some seats.

The vote of tea workers in Jalpaiguri district is a big factor. The state government has reopened closed tea gardens, giving new homes to tea workers in the Tea Beauty project. All this will give extra power to the ruling party in this election.

Demographically speaking, many Nepali speaking people also live in this district. With Bimal Gurung supporting the Trinamool Congress, there is a strong possibility that the equation will change.

The saffron camp is also trying its best to influence the tea belt. At the same time, they are talking about building Rajganj as a model village. At one time, the Left front also had an impenetrable organization in the tea belt. But, at present, they do not have such a strong organization there, but they have influence in some areas. They have also started organizing their units & organizations before the assembly polls. The result could be a three-way fight in some seats.

Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021

Like other districts in the state, the impacts of the solution in health, Duare sarkar, and effects of the neighbourhood are also felt in this district. In the social service sector, the names of thousands of elderly people have been included in the list of recipients of old age allowance and widow allowance. Besides development, the ruling party wants to take a serious chance at continuing for third term by using the Duare Sarkar policy or the ‘Government at the Door’ project, which has been hailed as a success by it.

But it cannot be avoided that despite a lot of development, factionalism is the biggest obstacle to the success of the ruling party, TMC.