Sambhu Paswan (name changed on request), a coal-miner in the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), was a “Modi bhakt” until he started getting worried about the Centre’s sale of 37 per cent stake in Coal India to the private sector.
“I am worried about the way the Centre has been selling its stake in PSUs like Coal India and the railways. I suspect they are trying to privatise them, and I might lose my job or be shut out from post-retirement benefits,” says the miner from Raniganj, part of the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.
The 50-year-old Paswan, who migrated from Bihar years ago, is also annoyed with other policy decisions, such as discontinuation of loss-making mines and the rise in prices of daily essentials.
“I was transferred from the mine in Raniganj four years ago to another nearby mine, as it was declared closed in the name of security measures, but I know the hidden reason. It was making losses,” he says.
Paswan says there had been no retrenchment in the ECL — a Coal India subsidiary — yet because of this shutdown of mines since the manpower was rehabilitated elsewhere.
“If the Union government continues to close down mines, the manpower will be surplus and we will start losing jobs through compulsory, untimely retirement,” he fears. “I have three school and college-going children, apart from my ailing parents and wife at home. It has become tough for me.”
In Asansol, over a lakh people, including contract workers, are engaged in ECL. Most of them are Hindi-speaking migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and are believed to be the vote bank of the BJP, helping them convert the former Red bastion into a saffron citadel.
‘Political traveller’ SS Ahluwalia on the BJP campaign trail in Asansol. Picture by Santosh Kumar Mondal
The Lok Sabha area has over 16 lakh voters, comprising around 40 per cent Hindi-speaking electors, and 17 per cent Muslims.
The fear of job loss has left many worried.
The Congress in its manifesto — Nyay Patra — has flagged this nationwide concern of unemployment. In a Lokniti-CSDS pre-poll survey, most respondents said unemployment and price rise were the topmost concerns of voters. While 27 per cent said lack of jobs was a major worry, 23 per cent said price rise.
“The Centre has introduced a revenue-sharing model in 36 coalmines of the country. We apprehend that the Modi government will introduce the concept in more mines if they retain power. This is a bid to hand over active collieries to private companies in the name of outsourcing,” says Birju Yadav, a coal-miner in Bansra, near Raniganj.
In the ECL, 33 outsourcing coal mine projects are currently at work. Around 16 mines are closed, or about to soon, because of security threats, lack of mineable coal, or mining not being financially viable among reasons.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) had been protesting the Centre’s move against the sale of Coal India shares, outsourcing, and closing down of mines.
“The future of coal-miners and job security are at risk because of rampant sale of CIL shares, and outsourcing in the name of the revenue-sharing concept. The Centre is trying to privatise all PSUs, including railways and banks,” says Bansa Gopal Chowdhury, a former Asansol MP and Citu leader.
Apart from unemployment, the other worry for the Modi government remains its push for privatisation of government entities. Aware that the party is creating a pool of opponents to its privatisation agenda, the BJP has begun to backtrack in several places.
The BJP won Asansol in 2014 and 2019, but was defeated by the Trinamool Congress in the 2022 bypoll, necessitated after Babul Supriyo’s resignation from the BJP and his move to TMC.
In the bypoll, Trinamool fielded celebrity candidate — former BJP veteran — Shatrughan Sinha, who defeated the BJP’s Agnimitra Paul by a margin of over 3 lakh votes.
“Shotgun” Sinha, a former Union minister in the Vajpayee government, highlighted the “privatisation bid” of coalmines in his bypoll campaign and the result showed it possibly worked.
Trinamool also arranged special screenings of Sinha’s popular 1979 film Kaala Patthar to help coalminers relate to him better. The Bollywood hit, based on the Chasnala mining disaster, was shot in Asansol and neighbouring Dhanbad.
Trinamool leaders said the BJP’s vote share (51.07 per cent) was at its peak in 2019, but since then has started decreasing.
“In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP’s vote share was down by 10 percentage points and ours rose by 11. In the 2022 bypoll, they came down to 30.05%, while we secured 56.06%. We will increase our vote share this time too,” says V. Sivadasan, Trinamool’s convener in West Burdwan.
Sources said the other issues people want to be addressed are reopening of closed PSUs, drinking water scarcity and reining in the illegal mining menace in abandoned collieries.
Trinamool has fielded Sinha again, and the BJP has brought in Asansol born-and-bred S.S. Ahluwalia, deemed a “political traveller”, shifting constituencies before every general election.
“The BJP doesn’t repeat Ahluwalia in the same constituency. He was elected MP from Darjeeling in 2014, then from Burdwan-Durgapur in 2019, and now has shifted to Asansol. We are struggling to answer why he could not be nominated from the same constituency,” says a BJP worker in Pandaveswar, one of the seven Assembly segments in Asansol.
He also pointed out that although Sinha is an outsider, as a local MP he was seen frequently in the constituency.
“But everybody knows that Ahluwalia is hardly seen in the constituency after victory,” admitted the BJP worker.
The CPM, backed by the Congress, has fielded former Jamuria MLA Jahanara Khan.
Sources, however, said the primary contest will be between Sinha and Ahluwalia. The CPM vote share has come down to below six per cent from over 48 in 2009, and that of the Congress has declined to barely 1.02 per cent.
“Asansol is a prestige fight for both Trinamool and the BJP. But the BJP is already on the backfoot... The BJP in Asansol is now rattled by factional feuds. A wrong message has gone out given the fiasco over the candidate announcement,” said a source.
Ahluwalia is confident though. “I am a son of the soil and aware of every issue that needs to be addressed. Modiji has chosen me and sent me to contest against the Trinamool. I will get the blessings of the people,” he says.
Asansol votes on May 13
