Will any close aide of Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Rajya Sabha member Ananta Maharaj move to the Trinamool Congress? Will such a person contest the Sitai assembly bypoll on a TMC ticket? Questions like these are doing the rounds after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had a “surprise meeting” with Maharaj on Tuesday.
Mamata Banerjee came to north Bengal’s Cooch Behar, offered prayers at the famous Madanmohan Mandir, and directly went to meet Ananta Maharaj, who has great influence among the Rajbongshi community.
Rajbongshi votes are crucial during elections in north Bengal. The community forms about 40 per cent of the electorate in the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency and has a significant presence in almost all north Bengal seats. Ananta Maharaj played a crucial role in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections because of which the Rajbongshi vote mainly went to the BJP. Sources said that this time he, in fact, criticised the BJP before the polls and also gave favourable signals to the TMC. The fact that Mamata Banerjee came to Cooch Behar to meet him soon after the election results reveals a lot, they said.
According to TMC sources, Haradhan Das, who is considered a close aide of Ananta Maharaj, might contest the Sitai assembly bypoll on a Trinamool ticket. The constituency has been vacated by MLA Jagdip Basunia after he won the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat for the TMC, defeating BJP’s Nisith Pramanik.
While Das is currently in the BJP, the Mamata Banerjee-Ananta Maharaj meet has sparked speculation about a switch.
In 2021, union home minister Amit Shah visited Ananta Maharaj’s home. Relations between Maharaj and the BJP were blossoming. The party backed his successful Rajya Sabha bid. But, observers said, Maharaj started feeling that the BJP did nothing for Rajbongshis and started criticising the party publicly.
They added that though local BJP leaders are not happy with the Mamata-Maharaj meeting, they can’t openly oppose him as he holds sway over the Rajbongshis.
Maharaj has told the media that this was only a courtesy visit by the CM. But if Maharaj’s close aide bags a TMC ticket for the by-election, political analysts said, the BJP must think seriously about its relations with the Rajya Sabha member.
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