Infighting and local resentment among some in the Congress party against the alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) may give the Left front an edge in North Bengal. During the first phase of the Assembly elections on Monday, 54 constituencies in the region go to polls.

Even as the Congress high command suspended 12 rebel party members for contesting as Independent candidates and resolved to honour the terms of the alliance with the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee's TMC, an influential section of the party leadership continued to canvass for them. “With the constituents of the alliance at war with each other, the Left has got a clear advantage in some of the seats,” a senior source in the Left Front told Business Line . Many of the Pradesh Congress leaders have found it hard to accept the “humiliating” terms of the alliance with the Trinamool by which it has been restricted to contesting in only 65 of the 294 seats in the State Assembly.

In North Bengal, where the Congress is relatively strong, it has been allowed to contest only 27 seats, but what has irked a powerful section of the party leadership in the region is that even in the Congress strongholds of Uttar Dinajpur and Malda TMC has reserved seven seats for itself — four in Uttar Dinajpur and three in Malda. “The grievance of some of the Congress leaders is justified. Though this will unfortunately have an adverse impact on the alliance in the elections, the fault lies with Trinamool for forcing such terms on the Pradesh Congress,” a Congress leader told Business Line .

Divided house

In Uttar Dinajpur, the Congress Member of Parliament, Ms Deepa Das Munshi, was openly supporting the Independents against the Trinamool candidates. In Malda district, however, it is a section of the Congress fighting against itself that may prove self-defeating. In the Mothabari constituency, Independent candidate, Ms Shehnaz Qadri, is contesting against Ms Shabina Yasmin of the Congress. Ms Qaderi is believed to have been the choice of Malda District Congress President, Mr Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, for the seat. Mr Chowdhury was conspicuous by his absence from the All-India Congress Committee General Secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi's rally in support for Ms Yasmin in Mothabari on April 15.

Coochbehar scenario

In the Dinhata seat of Coochbehar, however, the political equation has become more complicated. The Congress-Trinamool candidate Amiya Kumar Sarkar from the NCP will not only face his opponent from the Forward Bloc, but also the dissident former Congressman, Dr Fazle Haque, supported by Mr Ashok Mandal, the sitting Member of Legislative Assembly, formerly of TMC, who was recently expelled from the party. “Ultimately, the Left may very well gain from the division of votes in many of the constituencies where the Independents will be playing a role,” said a Congress leader.

To add to the woes of the alliance, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad, believed to control a sizable portion of the tribal votes in the Dooars and the Terai region, decided to sever ties with the Congress and field its own candidates in five tribal constituencies, though they will be supporting the Congress in the Phansidewa constituency in Darjeeling.

Three movements

Interestingly, the three northern-most districts of the State will be voting on ethnic lines, with three different political forces spearheading movements for Statehood. Foremost among them is the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, which wrested away the movement for Gorkhaland from Mr Subhas Ghisingh's Gorkha National Liberation Front in the Darjeeling hills and contiguous areas of the Dooars region in the foothills. Then,the Kamtapur Peoples' Party has its programme of carving out a State for the Rajbongshis of North Bengal, and its political ally the Greater Coochbehar Democratic Party, wants State of Greater Coochbehar.

The voting pattern in North Bengal may not be as polarised as expected to be in the rest of the State, as the anti-incumbency seems to have had less impact here. Moreover, neither of the two main contenders for power in West Bengal — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and TMC — has the kind of influence here as they have in other parts. It is their allies — notably the Congress, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party — who will play a crucial role.

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