Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) party may field one of India’s greatest footballers Baichung Bhutia as its candidate in the Darjeeling constituency in next year’s Lok Sabha election. Darjeeling is one of the few Lok Sabha constituencies among the 42 in West Bengal in which the dominant Trinamool Congress does not have a fighting chance of winning. Gorkhas there have been fighting for greater autonomy in governance and a separate state for themselves against stiff opposition from Trinamool Congress-led government of West Bengal. Nepali-speaking Bhutia is seen as the frontrunner among potential Trinamool Congress candidates for the Darjeeling constituency, where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) calls the shots. Asked about the possibility of his joining politics or contesting in next year’s general election, the footballer from Sikkim refused to comment. If he wins, he is going to be only the second footballer with an India cap to become a member of the Lok Sabha. Earlier this year, Prasun Banerjee, a former midfielder, won a by-poll in West Bengal contesting on a Trinamool Congress ticket to become a member of Parliament (MP). People from Sikkim such as the late Sonam Wangfel Laden La have been community leaders in Darjeeling, said a Trinamool Congress leader who did not want to be named. But that was way back in the first three decades of the 20th century. The Gorkhas elected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Jaswant Singh in 2009 and the Congress’s Dawa Narbula in 2004, but this time, the GJM wants one of its own leaders to represent the constituency in Parliament. It is not going to be easy for the Trinamool Congress to find a native Gorkha to take on the GJM, said the leader cited above, adding, “Nepali-speaking Baichung is our best bet at this time.” Gautam Deb, a Trinamool Congress legislator and the minister for development in North Bengal, refused to comment on Bhutia, but said the party would be fielding candidates in all the 42 constituencies in the state, thus ruling out the possibility of an alliance with GJM, at least for now. Bhutia’s links with Darjeeling are tenuous, according to Gorkha leaders. He plies his businesses from Sikkim and Kolkata, and has never had anything to do with the Gorkhas of the north Bengal, they said. “He is not a son of the soil,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a GJM lawmaker, referring to Bhutia. “He is hardly a threat.” GJM, he said, would field one of its own leaders as the candidate so that that person could take the Gorkha community’s movement to Delhi. Darjeeling has had too many “visiting MPs”, Chhetri said, when asked if an alliance with the Trinamool Congress was a possibility. “We won’t accept anybody imposed on us,” he added. In the 2009 general election, BJP’s Singh received 51.5% of the polled votes thanks to the GJM backing. The Congress candidate, who had won from Darjeeling in the previous election, received 19.4% of the polled votes and finished third behind Jibesh Sarkar, the Left Front candidate. After the Trinamool Congress ousted the Left Front from power in 2011, ending its 34-year rule, the party has swept almost all local body elections across the southern parts of West Bengal. But in the north, it has not been able to make as much headway against the opposition of the GJM in the hills and the Congress in the plains.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 04:00:19 +0000
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