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COOCH BEHAR/ALIPURDUAR: Sitting on a wooden chair in his small book store, Surojit Dey was looking at the BJP roadshow marching along the arterial road of Alipurduar.
The small town in north Bengal never experienced such an election extravaganza thousands of people, lines of decorated vehicles and dozens of musical bands. The crowd continued roaring ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
“Look at the faces. They represent all segments of our society college students, government employees, daily wage workers. Most of them are Dalits who used to be the strength of our party five years ago,’’ said Surojit, a TMC worker.
In Cooch Behar, Rajbongshis’ demand of ‘sena’ and ‘bhasha’ takes centre stage
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TMC is wooing Rajbongshis back to its fold, claiming that the BJP s promise of honouring the ‘Narayani Sena’ is false. It is citing a reply to Cooch Behar district TMC chief Partha Pratim Roy, also a candidate from Sitalkuchi, alleging that the central government had no plans of introducing a “Narayani Regiment” in the army.
The TMC is also targeting the Nasya shek community, which it believes are Hindus from the Rajbongshis who converted to Islam generations ago and form around 9% of the population in the State.
In Cooch Behar, PM Modi flags Mamata’s appeal to Muslims, CM speaks against NRC
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“I was also the CM of a state and I used to be proud whenever elections would go off smoothly, but here the CM has problems with that,” Modi said.
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PM Modi
Cooch Behar, where nine assembly constituencies are due for polls on April 10, saw heightened campaign activity on Tuesday with PM Narendra Modi accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of neglecting North Bengal claiming it has some of the worst development indices. Meanwhile, the chief minister called the PM a liar and accused the BJP of luring the Rajbanshis (a dominant SC group) with the “false promise” of constituting a Narayani battalion within the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
Identity politics has become the flavour of the season in north Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections as both the Trinamul Congress and the BJP are leaving no stone unturned to woo Rajbanshis through a series of announcements and initiatives in remembrance of Panchanan Barma, the most revered social reformer of the community.
The reason behind the reachout attempt is simple. The Rajbanshi population spread across Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and North Dinajpur districts is a decisive factor in around half of the 54 Assembly constituencies in north Bengal.
In the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the BJP had managed to perform exceptionally well in the Rajbanshi-dominated belts of north Bengal and won seven of the eight Parliament seats in the region.