A tribal by roots and by example

She is a Grade-A Dancer,a government post in the folk culture section of the information and culture department.

She is a Grade-A Dancer,a government post in the folk culture section of the information and culture department. And she is the root cause for the fallout between alleged Maoist leader Chhatradhar Mahato and the Trinamool Congress.

The party had reportedly planned to field Mahato for Binpur seat but chose instead to back folk dancer Chunibala Hansda,a Jharkhand Party Naren candidate. Mahato filed his papers as an Independent elsewhere after Hansda,two-term MLA of Binpur,wrested the seat citing her legacy in this tribal heartland.

Her husband Naren Hansda had founded the Jharkhand Party Naren and she joined politics only after his death in 2000. She contested the by-election that year and won a contest based on the credentials of her husband,seven times Binpur MLA. The party calls itself the only fully tribal one and enjoys the support of tribals in large parts of Junglemahal.

Chunibala Hansda has tried and established to that population that she remains close to her roots. She is the only candidate in the constituency who campaigns inside the forest areas controlled by Maoists. She often travels through these areas alone,rejecting the security she is entitled to as an MLA. And she always travels by bicycle.

I am a tribal and represent my clan. They never get into a car. So why should I? I am comfortable only riding a bicycle as my tribal brothers and sisters do, she says.

I am not scared of Maoists. I know they will not harm me, she adds. The Maoists are not outsiders but the poor people of Junglemahal. They are deprived and that is why they have taken up arms against the government. But villagers love me, says Chunibala,campaigning at Rupai village in Belpahari,known as a Maoist den.

In 2008,she created an uproar in the Assembly when she demanded that West Midnapore,Bankura and Purulia be ceded to Jharkhand. Purulia legislator Rabindranath Hembram of the CPM demanded she be expelled from the Assembly.

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Fellow legislators criticise her also for irregular attendance. I have the lowest attendance in Assembly sessions, she admits. I go once in a while to be marked present. Initially,I tried to attend regularly but could never make the government understand the problems of the area,so I decided not to become a puppet MLA. Staying here,I can at least save my people from armed cadres of the CPM, she says.

The Left Front has a firm grasp on most areas of Junglemahal but has never dented Chunibala Hansdas zone. Of the 20 panchayats in Binpur constituency,16 are ruled by her party. Dibakar Hansda,the CPM candidate in Binpur,has lost all elections since 2000 to her.