Jungle Mahal battle: How Mamata is utilizing homicide accused ex-Maoist Chhatradhar Mahato as a trump card in opposition to BJP
The first part of West Bengal Assembly elections is underway within the former Maoist belt of Jangalmahal viz. Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur and the high-stakes Purba Medinipur. While BJP had a powerful exhibiting within the 2018 Panchayat polls in addition to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in these areas, a panicked Mamata Banerjee has resorted to utilizing a homicide convict and former Maoist chief to steer its sinking ship within the essential tribal space.TMC has fielded Chhatradhar Mahato, the chief of a Maoist organisation named People’s Committee in opposition to Police Atrocities (PCPA) which had tried to explode former Bengal CM and left chief Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy in November 2008 and remained extremely lively until 2011. Mahato was then arrested in 2009 by the police masquerading as journalists and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.[PC:FreePressJournal]But Mamata, who needed to unseat the long-ruling left from the state, took Mahato’s arrest as a possibility to garner the Adivasi votes. TMC labored in shut coordination with the PCPA and managed to storm into energy for the primary time. However, Mahato and his PCPA had been dropped like a sack of scorching potato for the subsequent 8 years. Mahato stayed in jail whereas Mamata constructing on her preliminary success continued to reap the rewards within the tribal belt.Read extra: Mamata Banerjee is dropping tribal areas to the BJP. So she has known as on Hemant Soren hoping for a turnaroundIn the 2016 meeting elections, Mamata received 31 seats of the 40 within the Jangalmahal tribal belt and it regarded like TMC didn’t want any Maoist chief in its midst to brush the votes. However, that modified within the 2018 panchayat polls. The BJP received 42 per cent of the vote in Jhargram and 33 per cent in Purulia in that election. A yr later, the Lok Sabha outcomes noticed the BJP sweep 5 (Purulia, Jhargram, Bankura, Bishnupur, Medinipur) of the six Lok Sabha constituencies on this belt, which despatched alarm bells ringing within the TMC. In the context of the meeting, this may rely for 42 seats.Emergency conferences had been held, information began transferring with alarming tempo within the secretariat and shortly Mahato was set free of jail in February 2020. To satiate the Maoist chief who was harbouring some deep, unseated anger in opposition to TMC for ignoring him — the Mamata led celebration ensured that Chhatradhar’s son acquired profitable authorities job affords.Fast ahead to 2021 meeting elections and the face of the PCPA is now campaigning for Mamata to maintain a resurgent BJP at bay. Mahato claims the Trinamool would now do nicely in Assembly seats the place the BJP led in 2019.“The BJP divided the tribal community after its win. They pitted Kurmi (OBC) against Santhal Adivasi (ST) for political gains. But the people of Jangalmahal want peace and no more bloodshed. They were misled into believing that the BJP is working for their rights,” stated Mahato in an interview.While Mamata thinks Mahato is the reply to her prayers of victory, the opposite tribal communities and their leaders really feel betrayed at Mahato’s sudden rise to the highest.Read More: Mamata Banerjee is dropping tribal areas to the BJP. So she has known as on Hemant Soren hoping for a turnaround“The tribals feel Mamata has betrayed them. We elected her hoping for good governance, but she let loose her corrupt leaders on us. We (tribals) got nothing, whereas even hardcore Maoists were rehabilitated with fat compensation packages and given jobs,” Krishna Murmu of the Bharat Jakat Manjhi Pargana Mahal (an outfit of the Santhals) had stated in an interview final yr.The anger would have solely grown within the lead as much as the meeting polls and thus it seems that Mamata’s ploy of parachuting an anti-hero within the midst of public may backfire and finally reward the tribal belt to BJP as soon as once more.
