HM Correspondent Siliguri/Darjeeling, May 7:
Indranil Sen the State Information and Cultural Affairs Minister and close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to have caused immense damage to the prospect of the ruling Trinamool Congress at a time when the party has left no stone unturned to bring home its first ever electoral victory in the Northern end of the state.
With only six days to go for the Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik municipal polls, the hill TMC leaders who had been aggressively criticizing the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) are now suddenly forced to go defensive as the minister’s statement to pack senior GJM leaders and the party’s candidates into trunks and send them to another district have invited widespread condemnation. Even the TMC’s election ally the Gorkha National Liberation front (GNLF) has condemned the minister’s statements.
Addressing TMC election rally in Darjeeling on Friday Sen a singer turned politician had said that he has brought ropes and 32 steel trunks and asked the hill people to pack GJM President Bimal Gurung, General Secretary Roshan Giri and the party’s election candidates into those trunks and send them out of Darjeeling district after the election results.
The statements which were earlier ignored even by the journalists present there have now started haunting the TMC, particularly its leaders in the hills. The GJM is making the best use of the minister’s statements.
In Sen’s statements the GJM got the much required arsenal to fire salvo at the TMC bandwagon and flare up the local sentiments vis a vis the Gorkha identity politics.
A day after the minister’s ‘undemocratic’ statements, the GJM took out a protest rally in Darjeeling and filed general police diary against Sen. The GJM has also filed complaints with the election commission claiming that Sen had violated the election code of conduct.
Even S S Ahluwalia the Union Minister and BJP Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling has condemned the state minister’s statement. “Sen has issued a veiled threat and criminally intimidated the two GJM leaders,” said Ahluwalia.
In the complaint filed by Giri, the GJM has accused Sen of spreading hatred and issuing veiled threat to the GJM leaders. Giri said “The public speech of Sen was incendiary, full of hatred and the one that is bound to incite tension within Gorkha community. The statement has also violated section 153B (b) of Indian penal Code and model code of conduct” Giri mentions in his complaint.
Though N B Khawas a senior Hill TMC leader has claimed that the GJM is distorting the minister’s political statement and is trying to give them communal turn, many TMC insiders agree that Sen has caused immense damage to the party. The GJM which was fast losing its support base would gain out of the ‘irresponsible and ‘uncalled’ statement of the minister,” said a senior TMC leader in Kurseong who requested anonymity.
Aroop Biswas the state PWD minister and the TMC minder for Darjeeling hills, too, had made a similar comment (hill people sending Gurung out of the hills) in August 2015 from Kurseong.
Touching the issue on Sunday while addressing the GJM election rally in Kurseong, Gurung accused the hill TMC leaders for paving the way for the leaders from the plains who are now threatening to send the GJM leaders and candidates away from Darjeeling district. Gurung warned the hill TMC leaders and said that the state ministers and TMC leaders from the plains who are making undemocratic statements will also not spare them.
Observers believe that Sen’s comments have the potential of swaying Trinamul’s fortunes in the hills, where the party has made some inroads over the past few days.
The GJM which is banking on the politics of separate state of Gorkhaland has made the ensuing municipality polls in Darjeeling hills as Gorkhaland versus Bengal fight.
The TMC is banking on developments carried out by the state government, creation of separate Kalimpong district and the 15 different development boards the state government has formed for different hill communities. The state government has already pumped in hundreds of crores rupees to the development boards.
Identity and land are touchy issues in the hills and Sen seems to have touched the raw nerve.
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