Ground Report From Bengal's Cooch Behar: BJP’s Nisith Pramanik Winning Over Muslims To Retain This ‘Royal’ Seat

There is something quite unique about Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP’s) election campaign in Cooch Behar. 

Muslims play an important role in the campaign, flock to BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik’s rallies, and even occupy key positions in his campaign machinery.

Pramanik, who is a junior minister (Minister of State) under Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is popular among Muslims who form about 29 per cent of the electorate of Cooch Behar. 

And unlike other parts of Bengal where Muslims have largely kept away from the BJP, the Bengali-speaking Muslims of Cooch Behar are quite comfortable in carrying BJP flags and putting on Narendra Modi masks. 

BJP election rallies in Cooch Behar have even reverberated to ‘Allahu Akbar’ slogans along with those of ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Muslim community leaders often accompany Pramanik in his roadshows and campaigns, and make it a point to appeal to fellow Muslims to vote for Pramanik. 

Anowara Begum, a Muslim lady,  manages the crowds that flock to Pramanik’s residence at Kharija Baladanha village in Bhetaguri, a minor town about 20 kilometres south of Cooch Behar, the eponymous district headquarters. 

Begum, 52, ensures that all visitors to the modest Pramanik residence are served tea, refreshments and also meals. Nisith Pramanik is a nocturnal being, and has a huge number of visitors till the wee hours of the morning. 

“My eldest son Rizwan takes my place after 8 pm. His job is to ensure that adequate food and refreshments are prepared and no visitor goes unfed even after midnight,” Anowara Begum tells Swarajya. 

She makes it a point to stress that her services are voluntary. “We are helping out Nisith Pramanik because he has done a lot for us. We (Muslims) love him,” she says. 

Shabbir Sheikh, 32, screens visitors who come to the Pramanik residence. He has also volunteered his services. “I help out in my family business (a grocery store and a transport business in Dinhata town) and have taken a month’s leave to help out here,” he says. 

Like Anowara Begum and Shabbir Sheikh, there are many other Muslims who are an integral part of Pramanik’s campaign machinery. Some, like Nuruddin Sheikh, are members of his core group that decides on campaign strategy. 

“I have always worked for everyone and have never discriminated against anyone. The many welfare schemes and projects launched by the Union Government under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership also do not make any distinction and everyone benefits from them. That is why Muslims are also helping me out and will vote for me,” Pramanik tells Swarajya. 

Pramanik’s team is, in fact, a healthy mix of all communities of Cooch Behar. There are a number of Rajbongshis, who form about 32 per cent of the population, and also Bengali Hindu Dalits (the Namashudras) who form about 19 per cent of the population. General category Bengali Hindus, as well a sprinkling of non-Bengali Hindus (Biharis and Marwaris) form the remaining 20 per cent of the population. 

Pramanik’s appeal, say his supporters, cuts across all sections of the population. Down-to-earth and humble, Pramanik stays close to his roots. He hails from a humble family and was an assistant teacher at a primary school. 

Till about late 2017, he was associated with the Trinamool Congress. He left that party and joined the BJP in early 2018. His organisational skills, political acumen and leadership qualities, as well as his ability to get along well with all sections of the people, caught the eyes of BJP seniors. 

He was fielded as the party candidate from Cooch Behar in 2019 and won the seat by a margin of nearly 55,000 votes. His victory, along with that of all BJP candidates in North Bengal, stunned the Trinamool Congress. 

Since then, the Trinamool has tried its level best to reclaim Cooch Behar. Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee and a host of Trinamool leaders campaigned intensively in the district for the 2021 assembly elections. 

Banerjee unveiled a host of welfare measures and announced many doles for the region, besides making multiple visits to north Bengal over the last five years. 

But the BJP retained its new citadel and of the seven assembly segments under the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, the Trinamool could win only two, and that too by very modest margins. 

The Trinamool Congress leadership has not forgiven Pramanik for joining the BJP and dislodging his earlier party from power in the district. That’s why, says Pramanik, the state government has lodged multiple “false cases” against him.

“The Trinamool has also orchestrated physical attacks on me multiple times. But all their efforts have been in vain,” he told Swarajya. 

“I have the support of the masses because they know I work for them. They have faith in our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and they know that the Trinamool is a corrupt party,” Pramanik added. 

It is apparent that Pramanik does enjoy popular support. His rallies are well-attended and his roadshows evoke spontaneous response from the masses. 

The reason for that, says sociologist Tirthankar Ghosh, who teaches at North Bengal University, is “perhaps because Nisith Pramanik is the last hope of the long-suffering people of Cooch Behar”. Ghosh is a native of Cooch Behar, and now lives in Siliguri. 

Cooch Behar is one of the poorest and most backward districts of Bengal. But its residents are justifiably proud of its glorious past. It was the seat of the Koch dynasty that ruled over what is today most of north Bengal, large parts of western and central Assam and also northern Bangladesh. 

The kingdom became a British protectorate in the late 18th century and after it merged with the Indian Union in September 1949, it became a mere district of Bengal in January 1950. 

The past is all that the people of Cooch Behar could fall back on because successive governments in Bengal — first the Congress, then the Left Front and now the Trinamool Congress — have done nothing in terms of social, economic and infrastructural development of the district. 

Though it occupies a strategic position — it has a nearly 550-kilometre-long border with Bangladesh to its south and 84-kilometre-long border with Assam to its east — Cooch Behar has seen little progress in the first 70 years since it became a part of Bengal in 1950. 

Acute poverty and unemployment, which is endemic to the whole of Bengal, has coupled with largescale smuggling of cattle, drugs and arms, as well as human trafficking, across the international border to make Cooch Behar a den of criminals. 

The tyranny of distance — it is the farthest district from Kolkata — has played a role in the district, which lends its name to the Lok Sabha seat, remaining backward. 

Declining farm yields and incomes, poor healthcare facilities, absence of institutes of higher and technical education, poor roads and other physical infrastructure have bedevilled the lives of the poor and backward people of Cooch Behar. 

Cooch Behar was a stronghold of the Forward Bloc — a minor constituent of the Forward Bloc — for a little over five decades from 1962. The Trinamool wrested the seat from the bloc in 2014. 

“Time stood still for us for decades. Life went on and we survived, but at barely subsistence levels. Since there was no development, there were no business opportunities. The only economic activity was smuggling of cattle, drugs and foodgrains, and human trafficking, across the international border,” Tirthankar Ghosh told Swarajya. 

Things started changing after the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in the summer of 2014. A slew of projects — highways, roads and other physical infrastructure — as well as social welfare schemes unfolded in Cooch Behar along with the rest of the country. 

The momentum of development and poverty alleviation picked up after the BJP’s Nisith Pramanik won the seat in 2019.  

“But the loot of funds that came from the Union Government to fund various welfare and infrastructure projects like the PM Awas Yojana, the PM Gram Sadak Yojana, PM-PENSION, (mid-day meal) scheme, constructing toilets under the Swachh Bharat mission and many other such schemes stalled their implementation. Trinamool functionaries rigged these schemes and pocketed the funds,” Pramanik, who is fighting to retain his seat, told Swarajya. 

Pramanik contends that people of Cooch Behar are well aware of the loot of money sent by the Union government for various developmental and welfare projects. “The Trinamool’s false narrative that New Delhi has been depriving Bengal of funds will not work,” he asserted. 

Pramanik is facing a spirited challenge from Jagadish Chandra Barman Basunia, the sitting Trinamool MLA from Sitai, an assembly segment that falls under the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency. 

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee have addressed multiple election rallies here, and that is proof enough of the tough fight that lies ahead for their candidate Basunia. 

But Pramanik is confident of success. “People here know that the Union Government under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership tried to bring about progress and development, but the corrupt Trinamool Congress did not allow that to happen. All that the Trinamool leaders are interested in is their personal gain,” he said. 

Bangsidhar Barman, a prominent businessman who has interests in construction, supplies to the Border Security Force (BSF) and sanitary hardware, tells Swarajya that people will vote for Nisith Pramanik because they want a strong government at the federal level. 

“The Trinamool Congress is full of thieves and is not interested in development. They try to keep people happy with doles, but that strategy does not do any good. We need a strong and clean government at the Centre, and I’m sure that in his third term, Prime Minister Modi will put all thieves behind bars. That’s why we will all vote for Pramanik,” he said. 

Nripen Roy, a primary school teacher at Balaghat, about 26 kilometres east of Cooch Behar town, echoes Barman. “The Trinamool Congress lacks vision. Mamata Banerjee is making empty promises. Her party is full of corrupt people and she has to depend on them. Cross-border crimes and smuggling have increased ever since the Trinamool came to power in 2011,” he said. 

Cross-border crimes, and the growth of criminals, is a major issue in the elections this time. “Due to the growth of crime-lords who are into smuggling and other criminal activities, whatever little business that used to happen in Cooch Behar has suffered. These crime-lords have a nexus with the ruling party (Trinamool) and are also into extortion from us,” said the owner of a popular eatery on Biswa Singha Road in the main market area of the town. 

Pramanik had carried out an aggressive campaign against this rise in crime and criminal networks. The Trinamool tried to turn the tables by accusing Pramanik of patronising criminals and smugglers. But the tactic fell flat on its face because of exposes in the local media that laid bare the links between Trinamool functionaries and crime-lords. 

Fighting lawlessness and corruption have been the twin campaign planks of the BJP in Cooch Behar. The Trinamool’s flaccid response to that has been shrill accusations of ‘democracy in peril under Modi’ by Mamata Banerjee. 

A response that the people of Cooch Behar do not appear to be very impressed with. 

This report is part of Swarajya's 50 Ground Stories Project - an attempt to throw light on themes and topics that are often overlooked or looked down. You can support this initiative by sponsoring as little as ₹2999. Click here for more details.