Hareram Singh, MLA of Jamuria has been appointed as the new chairman of Trinamul Congress of West Burdwan district while MLA of Pandaveswar Narendranath Chakraborty has retained the post of District President. Hareram Singh has replaced former chairman of Kulti Municipality and Kulti MLA veteran TMC leader Ujjwal Chatterjee.
Hareram Singh, who was a former trade union head of INTTUC, the trade union wing of TMC in West Burdwan District was a surprise choice for the Jamuria Assembly seat in the 2021 polls but the non-Bengali speaking leader had helped the party to win the seat for the first time.
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The appointment of Hareram Singh as the new chairman of TMC in West Burdwan district has been made in a bid to woo the 35 per cent non-Bengali voters of the district. CITU still has a strong base in the industrial town. Hareram Singh’s appointment has been planned also to dent into the vast industrial worker vote bank.
In the 2021 Assembly polls the non-Bengali voters voted for the saffron brigade and for the first time BJP had won three seats – Kulti, Asansol South and Durgapur West Assembly seats out of the total nine Assembly seats in West Burdwan district.
The TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has set a target to win all the nine seats in West Burdwan district in the 2026 Assembly polls and the fresh appointment of Hareram Singh has been an effort to further consolidate the non-Bengali vote bank.
A large number of non-Bengali voters work in the steel plants, coal mines, sponge iron plants and in the
markets of the Asansol, Durgapur industrial belt. In 2022 TMC has fielded Bihari babu Shatrughan Sinha in the Asansol Lok Sabha by elections to woo this vast non-Bengali vote bank and the former Bollywood actor had helped the party to win the seat for the first time.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls Shatrughan Sinha had retained his seat by defeating the BJP candidate Surendrajit Singh Ahluwalia.
Another non-Bengali speaking candidate former cricketer Kirti Azad had also contested the Burdwan – Durgapur seat for TMC in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by defeating BJP’s Dilip Ghosh.
With having three heavyweight TMC leaders in the district, Asansol North MLA and state labour, law and judiciary minister Moloy Ghatak, Durgapur East MLA and state panchayat minister Pradip Mazumdar and former mayor and ADDA Chairman and presently MLA of Raniganj
Tapas Banerjee the appointment of Hareram Singh, a Hindi speaking
leader with trade union background has clearly indicated that the
party is looking for a clean sweep in next year’s assembly polls