Travel in this region in a rainy day is quite an exciting experience.
Make a halt and you would fall in love with small rivers, green forests and tea gardens around.
Jalpaiguri township in North Bengal -- often called 'neglected' region of Mamata regime and the communists -- over the years has developed as a home to diverse identities. Primarily a land of Rajbongshis, but in 2025 - just a few months on the eve of 2026 big West Bengal battle, the Bengali Muslim population is on rise.
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| Visitors fall in Love with lush green around |
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| Seeing is believing |
The area borders Bangladesh and hence influx is a happening thing.
“Ei sob niye Katha bolben na (Please do not talk about these issues),” says a temple priest. He is appointed by Trinamool party, he says but hastens to add that people and political workers are “over sensitive”.
Precaution is thus a norm.
There is always an importance about dreaming big. Look the other way, people say History belongs to dreamers.
Some years back, it was given out that the 'Bengali mindset' is essentially 'pro-Left Liberal' and thus the BJP will not gain much in some eastern India states.
However, the Tripura polls in 2018 proved to be different. The BJP even won the 2023 polls in the northeastern state.
In West Bengal - that sends 42 Lok Sabha MPs; the traditionally 'super-power' the communists could not open account in 2021. The Congress score was also zero.
The BJP had emerged as the principal opposition party and for 2026, the Lotus party is a serious contender.
Perhaps the big takeaway from all these cane be that the Bengali mindset too was 'saffronised' ! The Bengali Bhadrolok had embraced BJP ideologies.
Mamata Banerjee's politics and days of power marked political tragedy, say people in North Bengal.
It's all now a case of writing on the wall.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in West Bengal, the saffron party's vote share increased to 41 percent and of course, 18 members made it to Parliament.
Thus, came in the slogan “Unish-e-half; Ekushe Saaf” — "Trinamool strength reduced half in 2019, and would be uprooted in 2021".
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| Vacant lands also bring in illegal immigrants |
Local priest in Jalpaiguri says migration from Nepal, Bangladesh and even Bengalis from Assam have been taking place ever since British began tea gardening business here around 1884.
There is another key assembly constituency in the locality - Malbazar.
It is a busy place in the Dooars and has been witness to immigration of Gorkhas (Nepali settlers).
Odlabari and few localities are now hubs of Nepalis and outsiders, locals say.
The Haldibari areas are again homes to migrants from Bangladesh.
Only non-Bengali population earlier was Tea garden workers or Adivasi people from Jharkhand. But now Bengali and Rajbongsi Hindus are being outnumbered, says a tea-shop owner.
But Muslims say – while “we get the blame”; the BJP and RSS are gaining ground. Their refrain is – a number of Hanuman temples have come up in Malbazar, Binnaguri and Banerhat.
Even Adivasis and Rajbongshis visit temples and worship.
Falakata (SC) assembly constituency is Jalpaiguri district and is one of the key assembly segments out of seven in Alipurduar parliamentary constituency.
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| Plant a tree: Save North Bengal |
It was won by BJP’s Dipak Barman in 2021 assembly polls. Traditionally a Marxist stronghold, the Trinamool nominee Anil Adhikari had won it in 2011 nd 2016.
This constituency has also seen large scale immigration of Bengali Muslims.
Alipurduars Lok Sabha constituency has assembly segments such as - Tufanganj (falling under Cooch Behar),
Kumargram (ST), Kalchini (ST) Alipurduars, Falakata (SC), Madarihat (ST)
and Nagrakata (ST).
There are altogether 14 Assembly seats in Alipurduars and Cooch Behar, two north Bengal districts. In 2016, Trinamul had won 12 seats but in the 2019 general election, the BJP managed to secure lead in 12 Assembly segments.
BJP retained their hold in 2021 assembly polls but suffered setbacks in certain pockets in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Left is working hard but amid chances of ‘political violence’. Nevertheless, the Trinamool’s hold is weakening and it will requite political acumen to turn modest strategic advantages to win.
The Communists are also trying to claim that there would be shift of Muslim votes towards them from the Trinamool Congress. It all depends on how Mamata Banerjee plays her cards but in general sense the Left and the BJP stand to gain from ‘shifts’ among voters.
The ‘discontent’ against Mamata Banerjee will have to exploited effectively by both the BJP and the Left.
Factionalism within the BJP will be a major concern in areas such as Falakata and Jalpaiguri. These places fall between busy cash-rich towns Coochbehar and Siliguri.
The average middle and lower-middle classes across Coochbehar, Dinhata, Falakata and Jalpaiguri was dissatisfied with the Mamata government.
* Land grabbing by TMC leaders and grassroots level politicians is a huge issue.
The Congress party is generally far behind.
Jalpaiguri assembly constituency falls under Jalpaiguri district
The BJP has to work hard and re-tweak their strategies.
In 2001, the seat was won by Gobinda Roy of All India Forward Bloc. In 2006 Debaprasad Roy won it for Congress . In 2011 and 2016, Sukhbilas Barma of Congress retained the seat for the party.
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| Communists trying to make a comeback |
But in 2021 Pradip Kumar Barma of Trinamool Congress wrested the seat.
But it was a close fight. The TMC nominee had bagged 95,668 votes as against 94,727 by BJP candidate Sujit Singha.
The Congress nominee Sukhbilas Barma (then sitting MLA) had polled 24,228 votes.
The BJP workers are struggling hard to make further penetration.
Can they unseat Mamata Banerjee : Namo and his Chanakya Amit Shah
Ends
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