A swing of votes in the brew belt worked in favour of Trinamool in the Madarihat Assembly bypoll, Saturday’s election results of the constituency in Alipurduar district have revealed.

“Unlike the Assembly elections of 2016 and 2021 when the tea population of the constituency voted for the BJP en masse, this time there was a definite swing in tea votes at the by-election, which helped the TMC to win the seat,” said a political veteran of Madarihat.

Ahead of the bypoll, political pundits had opined that the support of the tea workers and their families would decide the fate of candidates.

The TMC leadership had focused on the seat for three reasons.

First of all, the party, which was formed in 1998, had never won Madarihat so far. Second, in Alipurduar district, TMC couldn’t win a single Assembly seat out of the five in 2021. Third, the party was determined to wrest the seat from the BJP as it was the only seat among the six Assembly segments where the November 13 by-elections were held which the saffron party had won in the 2021 state polls.

A senior leader of INTTUC, the TMC workers’ front, said there were 100 booths
in 24 tea estates located within the Madarihat Assembly
constituency.

“In 2021, TMC had a lead in 45 booths and the BJP in 55. In the November 13 bypoll, we secured a lead in 81 booths and BJP could get a lead only in 19. This swing mattered and helped our candidate, Jay Prakash Toppo, win from Madarihat,” he said.

In these 100 booths, TMC got 35,338 votes while BJP got 20,605 votes.

Toppo defeated BJP candidate Rahul Lohar by a margin of 28,171 votes.

The results have also pointed out that TMC secured the lead in all 19 booths in the four closed tea estates — Dheklapara, Dalmore, Ramjhora, and Lankapara — within the Assembly seat.

“This is a clear indication that workers of the closed gardens and their families backed the TMC as the state government has facilitated the reopening of a number of other closed gardens. They have shunned BJP for making only empty promises,” said Nakul Sonar, chairman of the Trinamool Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union.

The decision by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to provide land rights and houses to tea workers, a longstanding demand of the tea population, and include the tea population under various social welfare schemes of her government acted as game-changers, he added.

BJP leaders, when asked about the defeat, said the TMC used government funds to draw support.

“The anti-incumbency factor worked as we held the seat for eight years. Also, the state government transferred funds to the workers’ bank accounts for the construction of houses (under the Cha Sundari scheme) which encouraged them and others to vote for TMC,” said Manoj Tigga, the Alipurduar MP and BJP district president.