The BJP had won all four of these seats in the 2021 assembly elections.
The Siliguri corridor, also referred to as the “Chicken’s Neck” due to its narrow geographical shape, connects India’s mainland with its eight northeastern states. It serves as a critical transit point connecting Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, northeast India, and the mainland. China and Bhutan lie only a few hundred kilometres from this strategically sensitive region.
While Siliguri is an urban centre with a sizeable Hindi-speaking population, along with Nepalese, Bihari, Marwari, and tribal communities, the local economy in the rural and semi-urban stretches of constituencies such as Phansidewa and Matigara-Naxalbari is largely dependent on tea estates. Hence, issues such as the closure of tea gardens, low wages, and lack of modern healthcare facilities for tea garden workers remain central to the electoral discourse.
Located a few kilometres from Siliguri city, Phansidewa constituency shares borders with Bangladesh to the east and Nepal to the west, and also lies close to the Bihar border.
“Earlier, the border was porous. Now, fencing work has picked up rapidly. Local people are very happy,” Kankan Bhattacharjee told ET at the Phansidewa market. According to him, the region remains a high-alert zone, and BJP is perceived as a party focused on national security. He also noted that progress in fencing along the India-Bangladesh border had recently slowed due to a deterioration in bilateral relations.
Another voter, Monojit Poddar, told ET that Trinamool continues to dominate local elections. “We gave 34 years to the Left parties. Mamata Banerjee has been in power for the last 15 years. People are now looking for alternatives,” Poddar said. The Dabgram-Phulbari assembly seat falls within Jalpaiguri district, with its eastern parts located close to the Bangladesh border.
Across these four seats, voters have raised concerns over infiltration, human trafficking, narcotics smuggling, and the illegal trade of wildlife parts. The BJP has promised that, if voted to power in the state, it will take stringent measures to curb attempts at altering the demographic balance in border areas.
The BJP’s clean sweep of these four seats in the 2021 elections continues to pose a challenge for its principal rival, the Trinamool. In response, the Trinamool appears to have recalibrated its strategy to counter the BJP’s growing influence, with particular focus on Siliguri – a seat it last won in 2011.
