Siliguri
Siliguri: 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Village in the Kurseong subdivision of Darjeeling District, Bengal, situated in 26 43' N. and 88 26' E., near the left bank of the Mahananda, Population (1901), 784. Siliguri is the northern terminus of the Eastern Bengal State Railway, where it is joined by the Darjeeling- Himalayan Railway. It is also the terminus of the cart-road from Kalimpong and Sikkim, and it thus focuses the whole trade of Dar- jeeling, Sikkim, and Tibet. Several jute firms are established here, and, in addition to the permanent shops, there is a bi-weekly Government- market. A Deputy-Magistrate is stationed at Siliguri. The sub-jail has accommodation for 8 prisoners, and the dispensary has 20 beds.
Politics
TheSiliguri Model: 2011-16
The Times of India, April 16, 2016
Siliguri Model's real test is in its cradle
The Left-Congress alliance in Bengal has been the most defining feature of the assembly elections in 2016. What's even more striking is that the truck didn't come to life in some air-conditioned party office in New Delhi or Kolkata. The credit for bringing together the arch rivals in Bengal -the two remain competitors in Kerala -goes to Asok Bhattacharya, the 67-year-old comrade from Siliguri, a town nestled on the foothills of the eastern Himalaya.
Bhattacharya had won election after election in Siliguri for two decades. Then came poriborton (change). In 2011, when Mamata Banerjee swept to power, Bhattacharya lost by less than 5,000 votes.Some say he cried that night.But he didn't stay on the sidelines for too long. A year later, he engineered a tie-up of the two parties stopping “TMC from capture polling booths“ during the Siliguri corporation election. The Left went on to defeat TMC and formed the board. This was followed by another victory in the Siliguri Mahokuma Parishad election. This ingenious experiment of practical politics against the increasing might of TMC was christened the Siliguri Model.
Congress and the CPM-led Front -both desperate to remain relevant in Bengal -took note and the alliance was offi cially stitched this March.
Meanwhile, from her Nabanna office, Mamata was monitoring the consolidation of forces against her. As the elections drew near, she replaced the sitting MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya with footballer celeb Bhaichung Bhutia as TMC's Siliguri candidate, bent on nipping the alliance in its very cradle. Mamata wasn't taking chances.
Rudranath's name had cropped up in the SiliguriJalpaiguri Development Authority scam and fielding Bhutia would help tap into the Nepali vote bank.
A former footballer vs a Left revivalist. The 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2015 Siliguri municipal polls experience put the comrade ahead. But vote shares have fluctuated wildly and the Siliguri Model's real test will play out in Siliguri itself.
BJP polled 58,730 votes in Siliguri in 2014. It was ahead in 22 of the total 33 wards, but suffered a slide during the civic polls held months later, its vote share coming down to 24,000.The Left gained from BJP's slide in the civic polls, adding around 26,000 votes to its kitty .Meanwhile, Congress and Trinamool also showed marginal improvements in terms of gross votes. But with CPM joining hands with Congress, the equation has changed again.Add to this, the GJM with its almost overriding influence over the town's 12000-odd Nepali population, taking its support away from Trinamool, Siliguri can be anyone's trophy .
