It is 3pm and the summer sun is beating down on Rabindranath Mahato, 30. Never mind the heat and the 13km journey on his paraplegic aid tricycle, Mahato is not short of enthusiasm on his way back from a campaign rally of Mamata Banerjee.

The resident of Lalgarh in Jhargram who lost his legs to polio has been receiving a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000 under the Bengal government’s Manobik scheme for the disabled. He became a beneficiary after submitting documents at a camp near his home under Duare Sarkar, the Trinamul government’s reach-out drive for those missing out on social schemes.

It is schemes like these that Trinamul is banking on when 23 seats of Jungle Mahal, a forest expanse straddling West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura and 40 Assembly constituencies, go to the polls on Saturday in the first phase. Once a stronghold, Trinamul has lost ground to the BJP in this belt dominated by tribals, Scheduled Castes and OBCs.

Mahato had been eager to attend an election rally of the chief minister since he began receiving the stipend.

“I can’t move my legs since childhood. My elder sister gave me this tricycle. I earn my living by selling fish at Khariamura in Jhargram. Now, I am also receiving Rs 1,000 as stipend. I got the benefit without paying anything to anybody. That’s the reason why I will support Trinamul this time,” Mahato said when The Telegraph met him on March 17.

Not only Mahato, there are thousands in Jungle Mahal who have been receiving government benefits through Duare Sarkar camps, drawing more and more people to Mamata’s campaign rallies in the region.

The impressive turnouts at the rallies have given Trinamul hope of recovering ground ceded to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had bagged five of the six Lok Sabha seats of Jungle Mahal.

“The first change of mood was noticed during the 2018 panchayat polls. The BJP bagged a significant number of seats wherever elections were allowed to be held in Purulia, Jhargram and Bankura. Corruption at the gram panchayat level had angered people, which showed in our poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls,” said a Trinamul leader in Purulia.

He, however, added that the situation had changed significantly since then and the party was confident of staging a better performance.

Even the biggest optimist in Trinamul can’t claim that the party will repeat its 2016 performance, when it had won 33 of the 40 seats, but leaders are confident of a clawback.

The political history of Bengal suggests that the party that wins the majority of the seats in Jungle Mahal always has an edge over others in capturing the seat of power in the state.

The Congress used to pocket most seats in Jungle Mahal till 1972, when it ruled the state. The scenario changed in 1977 when the Left turned the region into its stronghold by wooing the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Jungle Mahal became a Trinamul bastion in 2011 and continued to be so till the shocker in 2019.

In the first phase of polling on Saturday, 23 seats of Jungle Mahal — which has an SC population of 22 per cent and an ST population of 15 per cent — will vote. The remaining 17 seats will vote on April 1.

“The Lok Sabha poll results had pointed to our failure in the region and we have tried addressing them in the past two years with the government machinery.… Then came Duare Sarkar, through which we reached out to people,” said a senior Trinamul leader, exuding hope.

Binay Jana, a 72-year-old marginal farmer from Sahersai village of Jhargram, can be a poster boy for the Duare Sarkar programme as he is thankful to the state government for giving senior citizens like him a pension of Rs 1,000 a month.

“I have diabetes and high blood pressure. Now I don’t need to seek money from my sons to buy medicines. I got the pension after visiting the Duare Sarkar camp,” Jana said.

The Telegraph

Records available with the state government show that around 90,000 beneficiaries were added under several pension schemes through Duare Sarkar camps in Jungle Mahal. Besides, 22,000 caste certificates were distributed.

Senior bureaucrats said Duare Sarkar, the brainchild of poll strategist Prashant Kishor, was planned as the ruling establishment wanted to reach out to people directly through government officials, not the panchayats.

“People were angry with panchayat-level leaders. We wanted to keep them away from the service-delivery mechanism. The footfall at the camps clearly suggests that the people are happy with the services offered without hassles. This also proved that many people had been deprived, which we needed to address,” an official said.

Service delivery through camps manned by government officials raises the question whether the Trinamul dispensation is weakening the three-tier panchayat system — local self-governments tasked with implementing the majority of development work. Senior Trinamul leaders said the party could address the issue if it returned to power, for which Duare Sarkar seems to be the trump card.

“We have realised that holding panchayat polls properly is very important as people can defeat those they don’t like. As it did not happen in 2018, we had to pay a price in the Lok Sabha polls. We need to change a lot of things in the region, but for that we need to return to power.… And our hopes hinge on the success of Duare Sarkar,” a minister said.

Sources in the BJP said the party had invested heavily on strengthening the organisation, which was earlier dependent on the RSS.

“In 2019, people had voted against Trinamul. Now, we want people to vote for us because of our work and visibility in the area.… We have strengthened our organisation after the Lok Sabha success, which will help us to do better this time,” said a BJP leader in Jhargram.

The poll planners in the saffron camp have ensured that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah visit Jungle Mahal several times to hold rallies and create a development narrative that Mamata can’t match.

“They have made it clear that jobs will be created, safe drinking water will be provided and pension for the old will be enhanced. People have cheered the Prime Minister whenever such announcements have been made. It is clear that we will win the majority of the seats this time too,” the BJP leader said.

This newspaper’s visits to different Jungle Mahal districts have, however, revealed that Trinamul has made a course correction through Duare Sarkar and the BJP’s promises appear to echo the Mamata administration’s projects.

“This is the difference between 2019 and 2021. People were angry in 2019 and now they have received some government services. Now, the BJP has to play a different role. They have to convince the people that they will offer more.… That’s going to be easier said than done as the Trinamul government has ensured delivery of services in the last three-four months,” a political observer said.

According to him, the BJP will find it difficult to repeat its 2019 performance because of a general perception in Jungle Mahal that the party’s elected MPs have been missing in action.

Against this backdrop, the large turnouts at Mamata’s rallies suggest that Trinamul is ready to put up a strong fight against the BJP and the contest will be close.

“Many of those attending our rallies are coming after receiving government services. That’s our biggest strength.... But it’s also true that the BJP has a silent voter base and they will vote irrespective of whatever we deliver,” admitted a Trinamul leader in Bankura.