• ‘If party does not field bhumiputra…’: Threat by BJP MLA from Bengal’s Kurseong creates flutter ahead of LS polls
    Indian Express | 11 January 2024
  • BJP’s candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat should be someone local, party MLA from Kurseong Bishnu Prasad Sharma said on Wednesday. He also said that if the BJP brings in an outsider, he will contest the polls as an Independent candidate, stirring up a hornets’ nest ahead of the general election.

    In 2009, Jaswant Singh won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket while saffron party leader S S Ahluwalia won after being fielded from the seat in 2014. In 2019, BJP leader Raju Bista won the seat.

    Speaking with mediapersons, Sharma said, “For years now, the BJP has been fielding candidates here who are not local residents of Darjeeling. People vote for them and they win but then they are not seen anymore. It should not be the same this time.”

    He added, “The party should choose a candidate who is a local resident. There are so many renowned people in the Hills. Why not choose from them? Darjeeling Hills have become a football field for politicians.”

    “To fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of a strong Hills, one should make a politically conscious bhumiputra (son of the soil) the candidate from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat,” Sharma opined.

    On what he means by a local leader, Sharma said, “Local does not mean having a house in the Hills. If I go to Maharashtra and buy an apartment, will people accept me as a bhumiputra? Local means a local resident who is born here and stays here.”

    Sharma further said, “Why is the BJP fielding outsiders in every Lok Sabha election? They were neither born here nor do they live here. If this time my party chooses a candidate who is not a local, I will not leave the party but contest as an Independent candidate.”

    Though the BJP state leadership remained tightlipped on the issue, Shankar Ghosh, BJP MLA from Siliguri, said Sharma should have stated his opinion within the party.

    “It is his personal opinion. We all know that there is a laid down process in the BJP for choosing candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. The process is being followed everywhere. Sharma is also aware of the process. The present MP, Raju Bista, has done a lot for the people of Darjeeling. People love him,” said Ghosh.

    Meanwhile, Shankar Malakar of the Congress said, “His (Shamra’s) allegations are correct. For the last 15 years, people from Punjab and Rajasthan and being brought in by the BJP as candidates in the Darjeeling Hills. The BJP is bringing outsiders as candidates. People do not like this.”

    “If you remember, earlier, posters were seen across the constituency that ‘the MP is missing’ in the Hills since they (BJP candidates) won and left Darjeeling. In the past three terms such things have happened. After winning, the outsider MPs never took interest in the welfare of the Hills. This is true,” said Trinamool Congress leader Gautam Deb.

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