The BJP virtually flagged off its election campaign in the hills pitching Prahlad Singh Patel, the Union minister of state for tourism and culture.

The saffron camp’s strategy to send a central minister to the hills to drum up support drew flak from Trinamul.

A sense of Patel’s mission was palpable on his arrival on Friday evening as BJP’s alliance partner in the hills Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) lined up party supporters in Darjeeling to welcome the minister.

“I am here on a three-day tour. There was a lot of enthusiasm in the way. I was welcomed by our party supporters as well as supporters of our alliance partner,” said Patel.

Tourism and tea are two major industries in the hills and Patel lost no time to accuse the state government of neglecting both these sectors.

“During the day, I interacted with tourism stakeholders…social organisations, people associated with various cultural activities and leaders of the tea workers’ union,” said Patel, who said he would continue to visit the region.

BJP currently represents Darjeeling Assembly constituency after Neeraj Zimba, a GNLF leader who had won the seat in a BJP ticket in 2019, defeated Binay Tamang of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, who was backed by Trinamul.

In 2019, Bimal Gurung’s Morcha was with the BJP but recently joined hands with Trinamul, alleging that BJP had betrayed their promise to the hill people.

The BJP promised a permanent political solution for the hills and tribal status to 11 hill communities.

“There is no reason to doubt our commitment made in the Sankalp Patra,” said a confident Patel. He said BJP would focus on Darjeeling hills on issues like culture and tourism in their vision document for the Bengal elections.

Trinamul leaders scoffed at Patel and Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling. “Weather in the hills is excellent and tourists are visiting the area. The central minister is also touring the area like any other tourist and so is the MP, who stayed away from his constituency during the critical period (of lockdown),” said Ranjan Sarkar, president, Darjeeling (plains) district Trinamul.

Binay faction slogan

Anit Thapa, leader of the Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, on Saturday said in Kalimpong that his party slogan for the Bengal elections would be “hamro ghar, afnai bhar”, which loosely translates to building a house on one’s might.