Prakash Chik Baraik, the Trinamul president of Alipurduar district, made a surprise entry into the list of six candidates of the ruling party in Bengal for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

The nomination, multiple sources said, was an attempt by Mamata Banerjee’s party to revive its support base among tribals dwelling in northern parts of the state.

On Monday, as the party announced the names, Trinamul supporters of Alipurduar were elated to learn that Prakash, who is in his early forties, has made it to the list. The party has, however, dropped Shanta Chhetri, the Trinamul leader based in Kurseong, along with Sushmita Dev of Assam.

“I am grateful to Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee for choosing a person who hails from a remote tea estate as a Rajya Sabha candidate. I will try my best to deliver the responsibilities and would also put efforts for the development of people across the state and especially the tea population,” said Prakash after the announcement.

Son of a Congress leader, Prakash, a prominent tribal face in north Bengal’s political arena, is from Newlands, a tea estate located near the India-Bhutan border in Kumargram block.

He joined the garden as a worker and in due course, got promoted to a clerk in the garden’s office.

In 2018, he got elected as a panchayat member of Trinamul and in 2020 he was put in the district president’s post.

According to party insiders, Prakash’s selection will help them to counter the BJP.

In Alipurduar and other tribal-dominated belts of north Bengal, BJP leaders often play the tribal card by referring to John Barla, the Alipurduar MP, also the Union minister of state for minority affairs.

A senior Trinamul functionary in the district said: “We will have a Rajya Sabha member from here, who is also from the tribal community. This decision, we believe, can largely help us in reviving support across the district and in the tea belts.”

In 2021, Alipurduar was the third district (the others being Darjeeling and Kalimpong), where Trinamul couldn’t win a single MLA seat despite its stellar performance in the Assembly polls.

A few months back, the party managed to induct Suman Kanjilal, one of the five BJP MLAs of Alipurduar district, into the party.

“This might be another reason for his (Prakash) selection. It is evident that Trinamul wants to make inroads into the district again,” said an observer.

The observer also pointed out that Prakash hails from Kumargram, the native block of Jibon Singha, the self-styled chief of the proscribed separatist organisation Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).

Recently, Singha released video clips where he gave messages critical of the state government and Trinamul and asked people of the region not to vote for the party. He also passed appreciative remarks about BJP lawmakers who had in the past spoken favourably of the statehood movement.

His remarks irked chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders, who had accused Singha of acting at the behest of the BJP. Singha is believed to have taken refuge currently in BJP-ruled Assam.

“Jibon Singha had mentioned that Calcutta–based leaders run Trinamul. It seems that the party has passed a missive to counter his claim by deciding to send a party leader from Alipurduar to the Rajya Sabha,” the observer added.

While Trinamul supporters were elated in Alipurduar over the selection of their district leader's candidacy for the Rajya Sabha, there were repercussions in the hills as the party decided to drop Shanta Chhetri.

Binoy Tamang, a prominent face in Darjeeling hill politics, raked up this issue after the news of Shanta Chhetri being dropped spread.

“It is sad that there will be no Gorkha representative at the Rajya Sabha this time. Our representation in Parliament is going down. People in the hills should unite to safeguard our land instead of fighting amongst ourselves for small privileges,” said Tamang.

Shanta Chhetri, who is from Kurseong, however, thanked the chief minister and said that after 1950, when Maya Devi Chhetri of Congress was made a Rajya Sabha MP from Darjeeling, she became the second woman MP to enter the Upper House from the hills.

“It is the party’s decision (not to re-nominate this time) and I have nothing to say about it. I am grateful to the party for sending me to the Rajya Sabha in the first place,” she said.

Additional reporting by Vivek Chhetri in Darjeeling