Constituency watch: Derailed Congress-Left Front bonhomie gives edge to BJP in Bengal's Purulia

Kolkata, April 21 (IANS) The tribal-dominated Purulia Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal is the only seat where the Congress-Left Front bonhomie got derailed as one of the front allies refused to honour the seat-sharing agreement.

All India Forward Bloc did not forego its claim in support of the Congress candidate. Despite repeated persuasion by other Left Front allies, especially CPI(M), the Forward Bloc chose to stick to its stand of not leaving its claim on Purulia, a constituency which used to be its stronghold.

Political observers think that this development gives an additional edge to the BJP candidate and the sitting party Lok Sabha member Jyotirmay Singh Mahato.

With both Congress and Forward Bloc in the race besides Trinamool Congress, there will surely be a three-way division in the anti-saffron votes in Purulia thus giving the BJP candidate an extra edge.

Going by the election statistics of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, the BJP is in an advantageous position.

In 2019, despite not having a well-structured organisational network in Purulia, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato clinched the victory with a comfortable margin of over two lakh votes. However, this time BJP is in the race with a structured organisational base in the state with the sitting MP for the last five years having nurtured the constituency.

His utilization of MPLAD funds during the last five years at over Rs 18.54 crore in areas like drinking water, road and sewerage system development, setting up of community centres and school renovation among others, is also quite impressive.

Polling statistics for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections in Purulia also paint a rosy picture for the BJP this time. Amid Trinamool Congress’ landslide victory elsewhere in 2021, BJP candidates got elected from five out of seven Assembly constituencies under Purulia Lok Sabha.

Trinamool Congress has fielded a former and two-time party legislator and also a former member of the state cabinet Santiram Mahato. BJP’s main campaign talking point against him is that as a state minister holding important portfolios from 2011 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2021, Santiram Mahato was not able to achieve anything significant for the development of the district.

Congress has fielded party veteran Nepal Mahato, who has been holding the party flag in the district for years. He contested from Purulia twice earlier in 2014 and 2019 and both times he finished in the third position.

Forward Bloc, against the wishes of the Left Front, has fielded Dhirendra Nath Mahato, a thorough organisational man, who rose in the party from a humble position earning his livelihood as a worker in a bidi (smoking stick) factory.

Purulia was an erstwhile Forward Bloc stronghold, where the party candidates won ten consecutive times from 1977 to 2009. Even during a massive Trinamool Congress wave in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Forward Bloc candidate Narahari Mahto got elected from the seat though with a thin margin of less than 20,000 votes.

However, the equation changed in 2014, when Trinamool Congress’ Dr Mirganka Mahato was elected from Purulia. The equation changed again in 2019 when BJP’s Jyotirmay Singh Mahato got elected.

With around 15 lakh voters, Purulia is a predominantly tribal-dominated constituency. The key issue of the constituency traditionally had been abject poverty and extreme weather. The Left-wing extremists at one point in time managed to strengthen their bases riding on poverty and lack of development.

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