Kolkata – The Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM), a political party rooted in Jharkhand, has announced plans to contest the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections. The party will focus on the Jangalmahal region – an area once dominated by Maoist groups and now a key tribal stronghold.
During its first political conference in West Bengal, JLKM founder Jairam Kumar Mahato, who represents the Dumri Assembly constituency in Bokaro district, called on party workers to start groundwork for the upcoming polls. He stressed that the party will target tribal-dominated seats in the four Jangalmahal districts: Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Jhargram.
“We’ll finalize the number of seats once a detailed survey finishes. The survey is already underway,” Mahato told reporters. He slammed the state government and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for ignoring tribal communities in Jangalmahal for years.
“Our campaign is social as well as political. We fight for tribal rights to land, forest and water within their own land,” Mahato added.
The Jangalmahal region has seen a shift in political power over the past few decades. From 1977, the Left Front – led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – controlled the area almost uncontested. In the early 2000s, Maoists gained influence by addressing tribal grievances. Since 2011, the TMC has held a strong position, a hold that BJP challenged and won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BJP carried that advantage into the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, however, TMC regained support in most tribal pockets, except Purulia.
With JLKM’s entry, voters in Jangalmahal will now have another option in the fight for tribal representation in the next West Bengal assembly elections.
Source: ianslive
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