GTA Election:Elections for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) held in June end have not only thrown in many surprising results but have also drawn attention on new emerging political foothills. While Anit Thapa’s Bhartiya Gorkha Prajantantrik Morcha (BGPM) emerging as a majority is indeed a surprise and Trinamool Congress gaining ground with seven maiden seats is the biggest catch of the GTA election, BJP’s absence from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration elections makes for a significant read.

  The Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat has for the last three Lok Sabha elections been won by the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP). The BJP, with the help of Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha ( GJMM) had in 2009 wrestled the seat from the Indian National Congress, with Jaswant Singh being the only BJP MP to win in West Bengal in that election. Since then the BJP has not only increased their footprint across Bengal but also deepened their networks within the Darjeeling Constituency.

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 Initially this network was built on the Gorkha vote bank, with the BJP tacitly supporting the Gorkhaland agenda without outrightly declaring for it. In the years leading up to 2021, West Bengal State Legislative Assembly elections, the BJP made further inroads into the Rajbhansi and the Adivasi voters while consolidating its hold over the Marwaris, Bihari and a section of the Bengali voters. The extent of this network was demonstrated in the 2021 elections when even in the face of a combined opposition by Bimal Gurung’s GJMM, the splinter GJMM lead by Anit Thapa and Binay Tamang, Atul Roy’s Kamatapur Progressive Party (KPP) and Birsa Tirkey’s Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikask Parishad, supposedly representing the dominant communities of the constituency, the BJP was still able to sweep five of the seven Vidhan Sabha seats that make up the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. 

In other words, the BJP had managed to create deep roots in the region and it would not be too incorrect to say that they consider this seat as one of their most impregnable fortresses in Bengal-one that has never been breached by Mamata Banerjee’s AITC. Yet the twin elections of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Siliguri Mahukuma Parishad(SMP) /Panchayat elections, that were held simultaneously in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha Constituency have shown trends that should have the local BJP leadership and the sitting BJP MP from Darjeeling; Raju Bista, worried.

In what was only the second GTA elections to have ever been held since its formation in 2011, two newly formed parties: Hamro Party (HP) led by Ajoy Edwards and Bharatiya BGPM led by Anit Thapa were considered the main contenders even before the campaigning began. The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha(GJMM), one of the architects of the GTA, boycotted the elections-though a few participated as Independents, along with Bharatiya Janata Party and their allies Gorkha National Liberation Front who questioned the legitimacy of the GTA, also boycotting the elections.

Though it should be mentioned that the latter parties, had already lost badly in the Darjeeling

Municipality elections held in February earlier this year and as such were not considered to be real contenders. In the electoral struggle, which involved massive campaigning and sharp political rhetoric, the BGPM emerged victorious with 26 seats while Ajoy Edwards remained distant runners up with just 8 seats. 

It seems most probable that the political landscape of the hills will be dominated by these 2 new parties in the foreseeable future. However what is of actual consequence is that BGPM and Hamro Party are NOT with BJP. While, Anit Thapa has always shared a very close political relation with the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and was also in a pre-poll alliance with Mamata’s AITC, Ajoy Edward despite his anti AITC rhetoric during the elections, shares a very good personal relations with the Chief minister, who reportedly is very fond of the Ajoy Edwards family owned business, the iconic Glenary’s. Apart from this even when Ajoy Edwards was in the GNLF, an ally of BJP, he had openly voiced his opposition to the Father Stan Swamy incident, which means ideologically Edwards is unlikely to support the BJP anytime in the future.

The Gorkha voters, as mentioned earlier, are the bedrock on which the saffron party had built their monopolisation of this seat. But with BGPM and Hamro party now emerging as the most dominant parties in the hills, as well as the AITC making strong inroads into the Gorkha voters in the plains in the simultaneously held Siliguri Mahukuma Parishad(SMP) and the earlier Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections would mean that the Gorkha block vote the BJP traditionally relied on in this seat may not exist anymore. Further the AITC has demonstrated in the SMP and SMC elections that they are also making inroads into the Rajbhansi and the Adivasi vote bank. This now means that the BJP would only have the Marwari, the Bihari and a section of the Bengali vote bank that it could rely on. Numerically it would not be enough to offset the loss of the Gorkha voters.

The BJP has in the last three elections fielded 3 different candidates in Darjeeling, in many ways innovatively escaping the anti incumbency factor. They had created the impression that they supported Gorkhaland but their interest in the larger West Bengal political landscape meant that they could not openly support the demand despite Modi’s declaration in Siliguri that the Gorkha’s dream is his dream. Jumla’s like this can only go so far especially with the current BJP MP, Raju Bista unable to fulfil even his secondary promise of bringing the 11 Gorkha communities within the ST status. 

There is a fatigue setting among the Gorkha voters with the BJP fo its inability to do anything concrete for the community. The BJP could field a new candidate but it would be difficult for the new candidates to establish a connection with the voters strong enough to offset the resurgent AITC in the plains and the HP and BGPM in the hills. The BJP has its stronghold in the Darjeeling seriously challenged and at the moment in this seat, Mamata Banerjee and her AITC seem to have outmaneuvered Modi’s BJP.

(By Dr Binayak Sundas-Asst. Prof. Centre for Himalyan Studies, Univ. of North Bengal, Siliguri )