Remote, economically backward north Bengal districts to vote in Phase IV

Of 44 seats, 14 are spread across two districts of north Bengal, 9 in Cooch Behar and 5 in Alipurduar district

Marginalised people from remote areas will exercise their right to franchise as 14 seats in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts of north Bengal go to the polls in the fourth phase of West Bengal Assembly elections. The areas include erstwhile enclaves bordering Bangladesh to a particularly vulnerable primitive tribe Toto living in the hills near Bhutan. In all, the electorate of 44 Assembly segments will vote in the fourth phase on April 10. Of the 44 seats, 14 are spread across the two districts of north Bengal, nine are in Cooch Behar and five in Alipurduar district. The fact that the Trinamool Congress lost both the Cooch Behar and Alipurduar Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election makes it an all the more important contest for the ruling party. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has campaigned extensively in the districts, emphasising that she has established peace and stability in the region and is upset that she lost the seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Cooch Behar used to be the capital of the erstwhile Koch Kings and both the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been wooing the Rajbanshi population. The region saw a violent separatist movement in the first decade of the century. The BJP leadership has promised a Narayani Sena force on the lines of other paramilitary forces in the country if elected, while the Trinamool is promising a battalion called Narayani Battalion in the police force. Occasional references to Panchanan Barma, another Rajbanshi icon, are made by both parties.