Kolkata, (Samajweekly) The Trinamool Congress has re-established its political control in Junglemahal area with the ruling party wresting out 26 of the 40 assembly seats spread across four districts in West Bengal. In the last Lok Sabha election, BJP managed to get a lead in 31 of these 40 assembly seats.
Junglemahal consists of 40 seats spread across four districts including Purulia Bankura, West Midnapore and Jhargram. There are 9 seats in Purulia, 12 seats in Bankura, 15 seats in West Midnapore and 4 seats in Jhargram, which was carved out of West Mindapore six years ago. The majority of these seats dominated by the tribal population are considered to be a forte of Trinamool Congress shifted loyalty and BJP managed to get 31 of the 40 seats allowing them to have four of the five Lok Sabha seats in these areas.
In the recently concluded assembly election, Trinamool Congress was successful in consolidating its position in the Junglemahal area wresting out 25 of the 40 assembly seats. The ruling party won all the four seats in Jhargram, 3 of 9 in Purulia, 14 out of 15 in West Midnapore and 4 out 12 seats in Bankura leaving 15 for the saffron brigade.
Though BJP has been successful in maintaining some control in Purulia and Bankura but they have failed to retain their control over West Midnapore and Jhargram.
According to the political analysts, there are two factors that contributed to Trinamool’s regaining control over the Junglemahal areas. Primarily it was because of the development projects of the state government that directly reached the beneficiaries and helped in restoring confidence in the chief minister. Projects like ‘Duare Sarkar’ or Kanayashree’ or ‘Swastha Sathi’ helped people get access to the government’s social welfare schemes.
The second reason was that people didn’t take the defection of Suvendu Adhikari whole heartedly and so BJP did worse in West Midnapore and Jhargram than in Purulia and Bankura.
“Number of seats in Jangalmahal went up to 24 this time from 10 compared to that of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. We have regained ground that we had lost for no fault of ours. People were actually misguided by the BJP’s false assurances. This time, they have realised that TMC can only ensure overall development,” said TMC’s Bankura district president Shyamal Santra, adding that the number of seats would have gone up if the party had performed better in Bishnupur.
