But scratch the surface and out comes a different, and perhaps more crucial, conflict which is not in public view, but one that has the potential to alter the fortunes of the mainstream parties jostling for political space: the simmering undercurrent of the fight for ethnic identity.
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Put simply, the political loyalty of the Kudmi-Mahato community, which is fighting for its re-inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category, seems to have taken a sharp anti-establishment turn in the state this time, while that of the tribal groups, dominated by the Santals, looks divided.
The main reason for Kudmi disillusionment with the TMC government, community leaders say, is its dilly-dallying over sending the clarifications sought by the Centre on the 2022 Cultural Research Institute (CRI) status report on the community, which has a significant population in the region, that has allegedly resulted in the holding up of its notification as a Scheduled Tribe.
“We had decided to support the TMC, if and only if the state cleared the CRI status report. Else, no vote for TMC this time. We couldn’t care less about tribal reservations, and we don’t want a share in the tribal quotas of the state. We only want our tribal status and true identity to be recognised,” said Kalyan Mahato, the Jhargram district youth president of the Adivasi Kudmi Samaj.
Also read: Narendra Modi to address four rallies in West Bengal on SundayAn agrarian totemic group dependent mostly on forest produce, the Kudmis were removed from India’s Scheduled Tribe list in 1950 and are currently engaged in an identity struggle seeking re-inclusion into the list on the grounds that they are an indigenous community, older than some of the recognised tribal groups of the region.
Over the last few years, Kudmi organisations in West Bengal and neighbouring Jharkhand have held multiple rail and road blockades in support of their demand, some of which reached violent proportions.
“The last inclusion under Article 342 of the Constitution was of the Tamaria community in Jharkhand in 2022. Like in our case, their inclusion was also held up since 2008 by TRI, the Jharkhand counterpart of CRI. It was cleared by the state’s Arjun Munda-led BJP government. This time, the BJP has promised recognition of the Kudmali language and has pledged to recognise our tribe. We are hopeful,” Mahato said.
“We kept our faith in the TMC for 15 years, but it failed to deliver. Let’s watch the BJP for another five and see what they do,” he added.
It seems sharp electoral calculations went into the BJP choosing to field Rajesh Mahato, a former Kudmi Samaj leader, as candidate from Gopiballavpur adjacent to Jhargram and Biswajit Mahato, son of community leader Ajit Mahato, from Joypur in neighbouring Purulia district, and reap political benefits from the Kudmi angst.
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Rajesh, already a prominent Kudmi voice, was arrested in May 2023 in connection with the attack on TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy in Jhargram.
“He was not even present at the spot,” alleged Shyam Sundar Mahato, another leader, adding that “the attack was staged”.
“The stoppage of Banerjee’s car was done by a spontaneous group of Kudmis who wanted to express their anguish to him. Instead, he said elsewhere that Kudmis don’t vote for the TMC and that he doesn’t need Kudmi support. That hurt us deeply,” he said.
Shyam Sundar said the community was trying to consolidate Kudmis as a vote bank so that “established political parties start taking us seriously”.
On the issue of reservation, Kalyan maintained that despite many other communities in West Bengal having received ST status, it was the Santals who derived maximum benefits from job reservation and people’s representation quota.
As many as 40 ethnic groups have received ST status in West Bengal, including the Oraon, Munda, Bhumij, Lodha, and Sabar communities, as well as the Santals, the largest of them all.
“The Santals are like the big fish in a pond devouring the smaller fishes,” Kalyan said.
A prominent Santal leader and chief of the Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal, Suryakanta Murmu, said there has been no decision on who to support in the upcoming polls, but added that the large consensus is to back the TMC candidates in Jhargram and Gopiballavpur.
“We are not a political organisation. Our job is to promote Santal culture and ethnicity. Our primary demand is to form a Santal education board since, despite the state’s recognition of the Santali language, the status of education of our children is quite hopeless,” Murmu said.
“We don’t trust the BJP, which has allowed private corporates to invade forest land in other states as well as in the Ayodhya hills of Purulia to destroy vegetation and mine minerals,” he added.
Murmu, though, insisted that no matter which party he supports in the elections, it would boil down to the individual MLA to voice their concerns in the assembly.
“So far, our experience in that regard has not been good,” he said.
Former chief of the Santal body, Dhanga Hansda, said a large section of the community was also facing disillusionment with the state’s ruling dispensation.
“TMC MLAs from this region are members of the state Tribal Advisory Committee. I doubt whether they have spoken a word about the development of Adivasis in their meetings,” Hansda said, adding that lack of teachers and adequate education infrastructure has brought Adivasi education to its knees.
“Their children go to English medium schools outside, while our children suffer,” he alleged, underscoring the divide within the community.
“Whoever wins the polls from around here, the margin would be razor thin,” Hansda, a Gopiballavpur resident, said.
