LPG woes heat up Bengal polls: BJP candidates face questions, TMC tries to cash in

In Cooch Behar district’s Scheduled Caste-reserved Sitalkuchi seat, villagers who are Ujjwala beneficiaries have complained to BJP candidate Sabitri Barman at public meetings about the difficulty in getting cylinder refills.

“We told them that this problem is happening because of the ongoing war (in West Asia). They are aware of the situation. Our focus in the meeting was on telling them about what benefits they are going to get if the BJP comes to power. The public is positive for the BJP and they want the party to come to power,” Barman said.

In the Scheduled Tribe-reserved Kumargram seat in Alipurduar district, the BJP has accused the TMC of “forcefully attempting” to turn the LPG shortage into an issue. Sitting BJP MLA and candidate Manoj Oraon said, “The TMC is trying to make it an issue and there could be some impact, but not much. On the ground, LPG is not an issue.”

However, his TMC rival Rajeev Tirkey, a teacher, said that though he had focused his campaign on the TMC government’s development and welfare programmes, voters had raised concerns about LPG shortage.

“People here are facing problems due to the shortage of LPG and rising prices of cylinder refills. It’s a tea-growing and agricultural area, where paying Rs 1,000 for a LPG refill is a challenge for the locals. While campaigning, I do not initiate discussions on the LPG shortage issue, but people themselves asked me about it. And they are not aware that LPG supply is a subject of the Central government, not the state government. So, whenever they raise this issue, I tell them in detail that the Centre is responsible for this situation,” Tirkey said.

In Cooch Behar district’s Natabari constituency, the CPI(M) is looking to cash in on the LPG issue, against both the BJP and the TMC. CPI(M) candidate Haik Hassan claimed that the LPG crisis was a major issue in the constituency, where voters were blaming the ruling parties in the Centre and the state. “People are helpless and buying LPG cylinders at inflated prices from black marketeers. When people raise this problem during my campaign, I remind them that they never faced such a crisis under CPI(M)’s rule in the past, and they will not suffer if the CPI(M) comes to power,” Hassan said.

In the neighbouring Tufanganj constituency, BJP MLA Malati Rava Roy admitted that LPG shortage was an issue in her constituency and that she had received complaints from voters.

Her TMC rival Shibsankar Paul, a former cricketer, said the crisis was growing in rural areas. Women from poor households who had received LPG connections under the Ujjawala scheme were unable to buy refills and were instead cooking using firewood, he claimed. “I am not volunteering to speak on this crisis during my campaign. If I will initiate dialogue in this, people will say the TMC is doing politics on the crisis. But common people including women themselves are coming and asking about this problem and complaining about black marketeering of LPG cylinders. I am not giving any assurances and only saying that the crisis may get resolved in a few days.”

On the possible impact on the election outcome, Paul said, “There will be an impact because people are facing hardship. Everyone is not able to buy cylinders at higher prices.”

Launched in May 2016, the Ujjwala scheme provides free LPG connections to women from poor households. Women have been a key constituency in elections, not only for schemes and promises, but as a voter bloc with rising turnouts on polling day. In Bengal, women voters’ turnout has exceeded that of men in every election since 2011, when Mamata Banerjee first came to power. In 2011, the male-female turnout comparison was 84.22% to 84.45%, with the gap increasing to 82.22% against 83.13% in 2016, before dropping to 81.41% against 81.74% in 2021.