Lok Sabha polls: TMC, BJP woo Rajbanshi community in West Bengal

Cooch Behar: It was around 1pm and the usual daily bustle at the Ghughumari bazar in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal had died down by then. Around 200 metres away, close to the Ghughumari post office, five to six men were eagerly waiting outside a two storey-house. Another 20 – 25 men were seated at the ground floor of the house. Most of them had a yellow-coloured gamcha (towel) with green-border, hung around their neck.

Minutes later, two motorcycles came to a halt in front of the house and as one of the pillion riders got down with a satisfied smile on his lips and folded hands, those waiting outside the house paced towards the visitor to welcome him. Even he had the same green and yellow towel hung around his neck.

Amal Das, a farmer by profession who heads a faction of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association, explained that the yellow and green towels were a part of the people of the Rajbanshi community – the largest Schedule Caste (SC) group in the state.

Das, who is also an independent candidate contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Cooch Behar, said, “Unlike the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), we don’t have the strength to organise huge public meetings. We are relying on small khuli sabhas (small meetings arranged in a house). Around 20 -25 people, or maybe a few more, attend each meeting. But we have the blessings of the people. None of the political parties raised our demand in Parliament. Instead, some of our leaders sided with the political parties. We feel cheated.”

According to the 2011 census, the Scheduled Caste (SC) population of West Bengal stands at 21.4 million, which is around 23.5% of the state’s 90.1 million population. There are around 60 Hindu sub-castes that come under the SC category. Of these, the three major ones are the Rajbanshi who account for 18.4 % of the total SC population, the Namasudra (17.4 %) and the Bagdi (14.9%).

“No wonder why every political party tries to keep this community in good faith. Cooch Behar, which goes into polls in the first phase, has a SC population of more than 50%. The Rajbanshis form a major chunk of this SC population. It would be hard to win this assembly seat without their support,” said Kartick Das, head of the Political Science department of Panchanan Barma University in Cooch Behar.

According to experts, this community, concentrated in north Bengal, can influence election results in around 20 assembly seats in five districts in the region – Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur. The first three go into polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 19.

While Das was busy in his small khuli sabha at Ghughumari, in the outskirts of Cooch Behar town, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was addressing a huge election rally at the Dinhata sanhati maidan, around 20 km down south in the north Bengal district, in support of her party’s candidate – Jagadish Chandra Basunia, sitting TMC MLA from Sitai, a retired school teacher and a popular Rajbanshi face.

Who has set up the Rajbanshi Bhasha Academy, the Rajbanshi Development and Cultural Board, the Panchanan Barma University, statue of Chilarai and around 200 Rajbanshi schools? I did. We will do everything and the migratory birds of the BJP will get all the votes? Can this happen? Give me your word. We have to oust the BJP. This is our decision,” Banerjee said, with Basunia on the dais.

While Shukladhwaj Singha, popularly known as Chilarai, was a legendary commander of the Koch dynasty in the 16th century, Panchanan Barma or Thakur Panchanan was a Rajbanshi leader and a reformer from Cooch Behar.

Cooch Behar, which was once a Left Front bastion, was wrested by the TMC for the first time in 2014. In 2019, however, the BJP defeated the TMC by around 54,000 votes. The BJP’s sitting MP from Cooch Behar and Union minister of state for home Nisith Pramanik has been fielded by the party for the second consecutive time.