Prestige fight for Mamata as she tries to breach BJP citadel in North Bengal

BJP insiders fear that the party could lose Raiganj and Cooch Behar this time. According to them, demographic changes in the two constituencies make the BJP candidates vulnerable.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Last Sunday brought a freak tornado to North Bengal, ripping out roofs from thatched houses, sending walls crashing down on hapless people, leaving five dead and rendering thousands homeless. It brought in its wake Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who toured the devastated sites and announced that she would stay put in the region.

Though she said she would stay to supervise the relief work, she has devoted her time to reaching out to people, talking to tea garden workers and villagers in road-side tea stalls as a part of her Lok Sabha campaign.

At stake are the seats of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri which go to the polls in the first phase on 19 April and those of Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat which vote on 26 April. After all this is the region which has repeatedly rebuffed her Trinamool Congress and has been a Bharatiya Janata Party citadel for long. Banerjee’s aim is to breach that citadel this time.

Mamata Banerjee was supposed to start her visit on 4 April, and had rallies at Cooch Behar and Alipurduar lined up. The tornado gave her the opportunity to advance her campaign. Trinamool Congress leaders say she wanted to get some mileage before Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BJP’s campaign in Cooch Behar on 4 April. She has announced that she will stay in North Bengal till 17 April and will only visit Kolkata for two days to celebrate Iftar and Id with her “Muslim brothers and sisters” and for Poila Baisakh to pay obeisance at the Kalighat temple.