SC/ST pinch-hitters in BJP’s forward defence

Kolkata: The BJP candidate list for the Bengal polls is a marked departure from those released by the TMC, Congress or the Left. Many SCs, STs and OBCs fi gure among BJP’s 245 candidates announced so far, and they are contesting on unreserved seats too — following through on PM Narendra Modi’s efforts to shed his party’s upper-caste image.

“Beyond reserved ones, even on seats where SC, ST, OBC populations are signifi -cant, we’ve tried to fi eld bright young backward class candidates,” explains Pratap Banerjee, a state general secretary.

A case in point is Khanakul in Hooghly where the BJP nominee is Bikash Chandra Dolui. He takes on TMC MLA Iqbal Ahmed. Ahmed won this seat handsomely, a Left bastion till 2006. But his name cropping up in the Narada sting may blight his chances.

In minority-dominated Hariharpara (Murshidabad), BJP is pitching its appeal to the Hindu backward classes: It has pitted Tulsi Prasad Sukul to fi ght TMC’s Niyamat Sk and CPM’s Insar Ali Biswas. “In Ranaghat Uttar Paschim, we’ll try to garner backward class support fi elding Anal Biswas against TMC man Partha Sarathi Chatterjee. These candidates may not win but have the potential to grow,” another BJP neta says.

This, in a state where where upper caste politicians have held monopoly. Bengal, for instance, has had only upper caste CMs — Prafulla Ghosh, Bidhan Chandra Roy, Prafulla Sen, Ajoy Mukherjee, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee.

Ideologues were upper caste too — Atulya Ghosh of Congress, Pramode Dasgupta and Saroj Mukherjee of CPM, Biswanath Muk-herjee and Indrajit Gupta of CPI, Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal, Asim Chatterjee of the CPI(M-L).

But the industrial belt along the Hooghly and the Dooars-Darjeeling tea belt have always been a melting pot of diverse castes, religions — settlers from different states, their economic demands gaining priority every passing year. Under Left trade unions, the popular slogan in these parts in the 1970s was: “Mang ke liye lal jhanda, vote ke liye teeranga jhanda.”

During the turbulent Naxalite movement, students, peasants and workers joined hands. Their struggle for economic rights went beyond social identity. Yet, away from politics, social identities continued to dominate community life even in erstwhile red bastions such as Burdwan.

These identities asserted themselves majorly since the early 1990s when the class movements plateaued. Identity politics asserted itself meaningfully fi rst in the 2006 Bongaon assembly bypoll, when the matuas (a sect strong in at least three assembly seats of North 24-Parganas) emerged as a bloc.

This was followed by changes in the Hills where tea workers were divided on lines of Gorkha (Nepali) and adivasi, and trade unionists mostly Bengali, slowly lost their grip. Since then, Gorkha, Lepcha, Limbu, Bhutia in the Hills, Rajbangshis in the foothills and plains of north Bengal, Santhals and Gonds in Jangalmahal, Ugra Khatriyas and Matuas among others have aimed for a slice of the political pie.

“We’re getting more people from backward areas: SCs, STs and OBCs. This is a new experiment,” said state party chief Dilip Ghosh. Over the last year, the Sangh has played a decisive role in Bengal. RSS brass, in a bid to get rid of the image of being upper-caste, has tapped SCs, STs and OBCs to forward its agenda.

Although heads of neither the OBC morcha nor the SCD morcha are contesting, the netas aren’t worried. Says Swapan Pal, state OBC Morcha chief, “I’m happy a signifi cant number of OBC candidates have been fi elded. Nearly 42% electors are OBCs. It’s good the party is tapping into this votebank.”

“Even SC leaders like me are part of the election committee. There are 27.5% SC voters in the state; their votes are crucial,” Arun Halder, chief of the SC Morcha says. The state ST Morcha chief Khudiram Tudu is however contesting from a Purulia seat.