The Bengal BJP is planning to expand its support base in the northern part of the State by striking alliance with the local outfits which enjoy substantial hold in pockets. These outfits are Gorkha Janmukti Morcha with which the saffron outfit already has an alliance, Jharkand Mukti Morcha, Kamtapur People’s Party, lok Janshakti Party etc.
These outfits have good support base in the seven districts of North Bengal: Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, North and South Dinajpurs and Malda.
The decision to form a broad-based alliance arrived in a recent meeting attended by senior leaders of all the parties. State BJP president Rahul Sinha, and GJM leader Roshan Giri were also present in the meeting.
The parties decided to contest the coming elections together, the BJP sources said adding the step was being taken with a view to defeat Trinamool Congress and the left Front in the 2016 Assembly elections.
The seven districts in North Bengal have eight lok Sabha constituencies and 56 Assembly seats. The KPP, GJM and JMM are particularly present in a strong way in Terrai-Dooars zone of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri besides having good following in Raiganj and Malda while the GJM dominates the three sub-divisions of Darjeeling hills and Kalchini and Rajganj Assembly seats in the plains.
JMM mostly having influence among the tea workers in Siliguri, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri has a good support base among the 4-lakh-strong Adivasi population of the area.
Earlier left parties like Forward Bloc and RSP apart from the CPI(M) labour arm Citu and INTUC dominated the tea belt but later they have been nearly forced out by the Trinamool Congress which has this time round won 4 out of eight lok Sabha seats from the area.
The BJP had in the last lok Sabha elections polled more than 16 per cent votes and had come second in South Malda seat behind the Congress. The party which won the Darjeeling seat has very good presence in Alipurduar where it gave both the left and the Trinamool a good chase this time round. The party leadership feels that additional support from the JMM and the KPP — which is primariliy an organisation of the sons of the soils like the Kamtapuris and Rajbangshis — could work wonders for the party in the coming State elections in the area.
For now, however, the parties have decided to contest the Siliguri Municipal Corporation elections and the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad elections together sources said.