Siliguri Model's real test is in its cradle

SILIGURI: The Left-Congress alliance in Bengal has been the most defining feature of the assembly elections this year. What's even more striking is that the truck didn't come to life in some air-conditioned party office in New Delhi or Kolkata.

The credit for bringing together the arch rivals in Bengal -the two remain competitors in Kerala -goes to Asok Bhattacharya, the 67-year-old comrade from Siliguri, a town nestled on the foothills of the eastern Himalaya.

Bhattacharya had won election after election in Siliguri for two decades. Then came poriborton (change). In 2011, when Mamata Banerjee swept to power, Bhattacharya lost by less than 5,000 votes.Some say he cried that night.But he didn't stay on the sidelines for too long.

A year later, he engineered a tie-up of the two parties stopping “TMC from capture polling booths“ during the Siliguri corporation election. The Left went on to defeat TMC and formed the board. This was followed by another victory in the Siliguri Mahokuma Parishad election. This ingenious experiment of practical politics against the increasing might of TMC was christened the Siliguri Model.

Congress and the CPM-led Front -both desperate to remain relevant in Bengal -took note and the alliance was offi cially stitched this March.

Meanwhile, from her Nabanna office, Mamata was monitoring the consolidation of forces against her. As the elections drew near, she replaced the sitting MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya with footballer celeb Bhaichung Bhutia as TMC's Siliguri candidate, bent on nipping the alliance in its very cradle. Mamata wasn't taking chances.

Rudranath's name had cropped up in the SiliguriJalpaiguri Development Authority scam and fielding Bhutia would help tap into the Nepali vote bank.

A former footballer vs a Left revivalist. The 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2015 Siliguri municipal polls experience put the comrade ahead. But vote shares have fluctuated wildly and the Siliguri Model's real test will play out in Siliguri itself.

BJP polled 58,730 votes in Siliguri in 2014. It was ahead in 22 of the total 33 wards, but suffered a slide during the civic polls held months later, its vote share coming down to 24,000.The Left gained from BJP's slide in the civic polls, adding around 26,000 votes to its kitty .Meanwhile, Congress and Trinamool also showed marginal improvements in terms of gross votes. But with CPM joining hands with Congress, the equation has changed again.Add to this, the GJM with its almost overriding influence over the town's 12000-odd Nepali population, taking its support away from Trinamool, Siliguri can be anyone's trophy .