The Ghagar Gherakendriya committee of the Kudmis have called upon the community members not to vote for the Trinamool Congress. Resentment is running high in the Kudmi community accused of allegedly engineering an attack on the convoy of TMC's national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee and ransacking of minister Birbaha Hansda's car by an irate mob.

While chief minister, Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the incident was BJP's handiwork and Kudmis had nothing to do with it , Abhishek Banerjee had voiced a stern warning to the community leaders asking them to handover the culprits or face dire consequences.

Arrests have followed. It sent a wrong message to the community who had felt that given the chief minister's assurance, they would not face any trouble.

Reading between the lines, one can see that after reeling from a series of reverses the Left Front has stolen a march over BJP and the TMC camps. To be more precise, since the TMC is not quite a force to be reckoned with in Purulia now, the front fielding Kudmi candidates have posed a challenge to the BJP.

The Kudmis had earlier given a call not to let the walls of their houses be painted with the grafitti of any political party. Several Kudmi leaders and activists have quit the party they belonged to for getting an opportunity to join an agitation demanding Scheduled Tribe status for their community and inclusion of Kudmali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Neither the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre nor the Trinamool Congress dispensation in the state have lent a sympathetic ear to their demands. Small wonder, the Kudmis are not enamoured of either of the political outfits.

It seems the Left has struck a sympathetic chord with this tribal community, at least in Purulia. At the moment, the Left has no reason to go over the top at not being considered a political pariah by the Kudmis; it has merely made a small beginning.

It is BJP rather than Trinamool Congress which is the principal political party in Purulia, a one-time Left Front bastion. In the violence ridden 2018 panchayat elections, the BJP had won 100 panchayats and captured five out of six seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections in this area dominated by Kudmis and other tribals.

But the saffron outfit had only 16 seats in its bag in the 2021 Assembly elections. The rest of the seats were won by TMC nominees while tally of the Left was zero.

The situation has worsened for the BJP after the 100 days work for the MNREGA has stopped. Many of its beneficiaries have been forced to become migrant workers for which the TMC placed the blame at the door of the BJP government at the Centre.

Little did the TMC realise that their blame game was interpreted as buck passing. For the TMC state government has not been able to provide alternative source of income.

The Left leadership has been wooing the Kudmis and other tribals living in this district. Sympathy towards the Kudmi demand has been voiced by the Left has had its effect.

The decision to participate in the panchayat elections by some of the Kudmis as nominees of the Left has come against the backdrop of a call of Adivasi Kudmi Samaj to boycott all political parties. So far it is the sole point the Left has scored.

Train services in a vast swathe of Junglemahal districts came to a halt after Kudmis upped ante in Scheduled Tribe status stir. It remains to be seen whether Left fielding Kudmi nominees in Purulia can halt the Trinamool and BJP juggernauts in the coming panchayat elections. (IPA Service)