Matriarch on the move: In Binpur, a former MLA revives old networks to secure her daughter’s win
Telegraph | 22 April 2026
It’s a hot April afternoon. A battered Bolero is speeding towards Binpur.
The 64-year-old widow in the front passenger seat of the non-AC car gazes at a passing, poorly attended Trinamool Congress procession. She looks upset.
“Did you see the number of people in the procession? I can’t believe this is a campaign rally of the party in power,” she tells this correspondent.
She readily admits the ground reality in the Jungle Mahal constituency that Trinamool won in 2021.
“The situation has forced me to come out and do something different,” the 64-year-old adds.
She has no time to waste. Accompanied by three or four people, she zips along the dusty laterite roads from 8.30 in the morning. Her day ends at 10.30 at night.
She isn’t an election candidate. Nor is she a Trinamool leader. She is Chunibala Hansda, who won the constituency for the Jharkhand Party (Naren) in 2006 but quit electoral politics after losing to her CPM rival in 2011.
She also happens to be the mother of state forest minister and outgoing Jhargram MLA Birbaha Hansda, who has been relocated to Binpur amid suspicions of high anti-incumbency in her earlier constituency.
Chunibala’s late husband Naren Hansda founded the Jharkhand Party (Naren) and was Binpur MLA from 1991 till his death in 1999.
Chunibala knows this election will be a tough one for her daughter. Sensing the challenge, she has taken to the streets to revive her old political network.
Birbaha is one of 15 sitting MLAs relocated by Trinamool. The party thought it a smart idea to shift the forest minister to a denser forest zone with a higher tribal population, and one her parents had represented for a decade and a half.
But the ground in Binpur appears to have shifted.
A source close to Birbaha said she had been so upset with the relocation that she confined herself for three days after being announced as the candidate from Binpur.
“If high anti-incumbency was the problem in Jhargram, it’s even more so in Binpur,” a Trinamool leader said.
“That’s because of the voters’ unhappiness with the incumbent, Debnath Hansda, who has been denied a party ticket this time. Other issues, such as infighting among local leaders, too, have contributed to turning the constituency into a tough seat.”
So, Chunibala decided to run a parallel campaign in her daughter’s favour.
“I have been meeting my old supporters — those who were with us 20 years ago — and the members of the party founded by my husband,” she says.
“I meet them personally and request them to vote for my daughter and work for her on the ground. Still, it won’t be easy.”
Chunibala says this is exactly the tactics she and her husband had used in the past to win elections. She was elected twice from Binpur — first in a by-election in 2000 after Naren’s death in 1999 — and again in 2006 when she defeated the CPM candidate to become a full-term MLA.
Birbaha’s situation shows that relocating sitting MLAs does not necessarily mean a sharp improvement in the chances of victory. It can pose challenges to both party and candidate.
Trinamool sources claim that all the 15 relocations were made after rigorous surveys by poll consultant I-PAC and the party’s own machinery.
Among the other 14 relocated candidates are Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay (Khardah to Ballygunge), Saokat Molla (Canning to Bhangar), and former IPS officer Humayun Kabir (Debra in West Midnapore to Domkal in Murshidabad).
Political analysts say there are both pros and cons to shifting candidates, but such a move primarily brings uncertainty.
“The biggest example was Dilip Ghosh, who was shifted to the Burdwan-Durgapur constituency from his stronghold Medinipur in the 2024 general election. He was defeated,” political scientist Subhamoy Maitra said.
“Once an MLA is shifted from their own constituency to another, uncertainty sets in. It may work, but the outcome cannot be predicted.”
Birbaha, however, is not ready to accept that Binpur has become a challenge.
“Binpur is my homeland. The people of this constituency have been like family members since my father’s time. I believe they will stand by me,” she says.
Half of Binpur’s population is tribal, which is one of the reasons Trinamool has fielded Birbaha from the seat. In Jhargram, the tribal population is around 28 per cent.
“But it’s too facile to assume that all the tribal voters will support Trinamool,” a BJP leader said.
The BJP has fielded Pranat Tudu, who unsuccessfully contested from the Jhargram Lok Sabha seat in 2024 and has been working in Binpur for the past two years.
“Birbaha Hansda, in contrast, was sent to Binpur only after the candidate list was announced,” the BJP leader said.
“And though Trinamool eventually managed to get outgoing MLA Debnath Hansda to campaign for her, his entire team has not been working actively.”
However, the 2024 Lok Sabha election results may hold out some hope for Birbaha: Her party led from Binpur by nearly 24,000 votes.
Those close to the forest minister say that if she wins, much of the credit will go to her mother, who has been spending more time on the ground than the candidate.
“I don’t know what more I can do. But I can assure you that I won’t leave the ground without a fight,” Chunibala says before instructing her driver to head towards Silda Bazar.