But the recent developments point to a paradigm shift. For a society that treated casteism as pariah for decades, this trend is really a matter of serious concern. The electoral desperation and exigencies of a new kind of social engineering have been primarily responsible for this development. The initiative to forge a new caste combination in fact has come from the BJP. The party nursed the impression that like in other states and cities, the middle class of Bengal too would rally behind it. But the skepticism of the middle class and Bengali Bhadralok forced it look for some alternate model. Otherwise too historically the Bengali middle class has been left oriented and does not subscribe to the rightist politics and ideology.

Taking a cue from Narendra Modi’s experiment in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where it weaved a network of upper caste, OBC and section of Muslims, the Bengal BJP leaders have also been assiduously striving to forge a new combination of the dalits, Hindi speaking people and a section of the Bengali OBC. In fact the response of the Hindi speaking people to the public meeting of the Modi and Amit Shah has made the leadership assured of their support. But they are cautious too. The leadership realizes that all the Biharis or Uttar Pradeshis or Jharkhandis have not turned pro-BJP. In Jharkhand BJP failed to accomplish its mission.

While the BJP has been projecting Hindi speaking voters as its natural supporters, it has been striving hard to make an inroad in the dalits. For this it targeted the Matua community. The first major action has been engineering a defection in the Trinamool Congress. Its minister of state for refugee relief Manjul Krishna Thakur, a Matua leasder, joined BJP a month back. Mamata on her part nominated wife of Thakur’s late elder brother, Mamata Bala Thakur from Bongaon seat as Trinamool candidate. Significantly the matriarch of the Matua community Binapani Debi Thakurani (Baroma) has thrown her weight behind Mamata. In fact she has distanced herself from her son’s political action.

The BJP has in fact been trying to cobble up a new caste and equation with dalits as the fulcrum. The Matua community, comprising low caste Hindu refugees from Bangladesh has nearly a crore votes in South Bengal districts and determines the electoral outcome in 74 of the state`s 294 assembly seats. Leaders of political parties vie each other to call on Baroma and seek her support ahead of every election. Manjul Thakur`s elder brother Kapil Krishna, who won last year from the Bangaon Lok Sabha constituency, died recently. Harichand Thakur was the first person to declare that Dalits are not Hindu. He said that Matua Dharma is dalit religion. His son Guruchand Thakur led the dalit awakening movement in Bengal.

The Dalits in West Bengal are also more organized than what they have ever been before. In 2012 a Dalit party Bahumukhi Mukti Party (BMP) was set up with the members of the Pandru Kshastriya, Namasudra and Bowri 'scheduled caste'. Their demand is very direct: They argue 'so far the Brahmins or Baidyas have been becoming the Chief Ministers of the state, now we want to see Muslims and Dalits in this office.' Razzak Mollah who was expelled from CPM before the election, has now been with the BMP. Association of the veteran Marxist leader with BMP is yet another indicator of change of political psychology and contour in the state which till recently has been more committed to ideology

West Bengal is one of the six states having the highest percentage of scheduled caste population: Punjab (28.9), Himachal Pradesh (24.7), West Bengal (23.0), Uttar Pradesh (21.1), Haryana (19.3) and Tamil Nadu (19.0). The states that have the largest number of scheduled castes are Uttar Pradesh (351.5 lakhs), West Bengal (184.5 lakhs), Bihar (130.5 lakhs), Andhra Pradesh (123.4 lakhs), Tamil Nadu (118.6 lakhs), Maharashtra (98.8 lakhs), Rajasthan (96.9 lakhs), Madhya Pradesh (91.6 lakhs), Karnataka (85.6 lakhs), Punjab (70.3 lakhs), Orissa (60.8 lakhs) and Haryana (40.9 lakhs). According to the 2011 census four states account for nearly half of the country's dalit population. Uttar Pradesh with 20.5% of the total scheduled caste (SC) population is followed by West Bengal with 10.7%, Bihar with 8.2% and Tamil Nadu with 7.2 %. Dalits form around 16.6% of India's population.

No doubt Mamata’s move is also a step towards consolidating her Matua 'vote bank'. The Matua community primarily consists of Dalits (mainly Namasudra). The sect members assiduously follow its chief's diktats during elections. Mamata has been conferred with life time membership of the community. She has been cultivating the community ever since her agitations in Nandigram and Singur, where dalits and backward class peasants had to face the violent actions of the Left Front government on the issue of land acquisition. Since then, the Trinamool has maintained a close relation with the 'Matua' community. The Namashudras have been the strongest support base for the CPI(M). But wrong handling of their agitation in Singur and Nandigram and refusal to listen to their demands by the CPI(M) leaders alienated them. As a result the fared poorly in the panchayat polls in 2008 and again in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the areas where the sect holds sway. The Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency has seven Assembly segments — Kalyani, Haringhata, Bagdah, Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, Gaighata and Swarupnagar — all reserved for Scheduled Castes. Matuas constitute nearly 50% of the SC population in these areas, the highest concentration being in Bagdah (80%) and in Gaighata (60%).

The new politics of caste in West Bengal has the potential to dislodge the traditional bipolar political discourse in the state. While bhadrolok politics is still dominant, the question of caste is likely to play a crucial role in this election. The dalit voice which emerged during the Nandigram and Singur movement has become louder. Significantly Mahashweta Devi was the first who had recognised \Nandigram Insurrection as Dalit Movement. The element of dalit upsurge and politics of Bahujan Samaj was also present in the Maoist movement of Lalgarh, and Jungle Mahals. Marginalisation of dalits and minorities within the party, and increasing elitism and bureaucracy led rebel CPI (M) leaders like Rezzak Mollah to come up with autonomous political formations like the recently formed “Social Justice Forum” before the Lok Sabha polls. In Bengal so far the issue of Dalits have not got any support from any political outfits.

In the prevailing political scenario in West Bengal, the term “Matua” has gained currency on a scale that has surprised the middle-class and upper caste Bengali. Thje fact of the matter is even the ruling CPI(M) is trying to woo the Matuas obviously with an eye to the forthcoming assembly elections. They nurse the view that if the Matua leadership supports the party, then the poor peasants of Bengal will come back to its fold once again. Led by the upper class and castes leaders, the Left parties neglected the demand of the dalit communities for a long time. They didn’t even co-operate with the Mondol Commission in the 1980s. And now they are trying to win the Matuas over, in a bid to reverse electoral misfortunes.

In the past, the politics of the state focussed on the Kolkata-centric bhadralok. But of late, there has been a change in mindset and politics here is now swayed by caste and creed, much in the same manner as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and such states. The bhadrolok's party society is being gradually replaced by the new brand of caste and community politics. This was very clear since the Vidhan Sabha elections.

It was in 2007-08 that the Matua Mahasangha took on a political colour in West Bengal, dealing with socio-economic issues. The 'low-caste' Matuas displayed a local network of power in the 2009 elections. This Matua network was a direct challenge to the Bhadrolok politics which had dominated the state politics. Besides wooing Matuas, Mamata Banerjee is also embracing the Rajbanshis of north Bengal. True speaking Matuas and Rajbangshis have emerged and developed outside of the mainstream political clique and have created a sort of self-rule society but not at all in conflict with the state. Quite significant the 93-year-old Matua matriarch Binapani Debi is now the most sought after person in West Bengali politics. Rajbangshis are a long-neglected community. In 2012, Trinamool set up a university in Cooch Bihar in the name of Rajbangshi leader Panchanan Verma. (IPA Service)