The tea estates of the Dooars have emerged as a crucial battleground ahead of the Assembly elections, prompting the Alipurduar district unit of the Trinamool Congress to launch a focused outreach campaign, highlighting the state government’s welfare initiatives for the brew belt.

Tea garden workers play a decisive role in almost all five Assembly constituencies in the district. In 2021, the BJP had bagged all five Assembly seats.

Trinamool has printed around 65,000 leaflets outlining the party’s achievements and promises.

The leaflet, with the slogan “Abar jitbe cha sramikra (Tea garden workers will win again)”, written in Hindi to ensure accessibility among garden workers, will be distributed door-to-door across all 65 tea gardens in the district by Trinamool trade union leaders.

“We will reach out to the tea workers and their families and tell them that it is only Trinamool that keeps its promises. The leaflets mention the initiatives taken by our leaders and the promises made by them to prove that we could meet expectations. Unlike the BJP, we do not make hollow promises,” said Prakash Chik Baraik, the Alipurduar district Trinamool president.

The leaflet highlights some of the welfare measures undertaken or promised by the state government and Trinamool, including wage increase.

“If Trinamool returns to power, the daily wage of tea garden workers will be increased from the current ₹250 to ₹300 a day,” reads the leaflet.

It states that 53 primary health centres (PHCs), which will come up in tea estates, will be equipped with 10-bed facilities within six months. Also, each will have an ambulance.

The leaflet also stated that out of 61 proposed crèches, 34 are already operational and are being run by self-help groups (SHGs). Also, 11 school buses have already been introduced for students of tea estates, and some more would be introduced.

“Our party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee assured workers that schoolbuses would start running within three days and crèches would become operational. Already, 34 out of 53 crèches are functioning, and some buses are running. The unit committees of our tea trade union will distribute the leaflets in every tea estate of the district,” Baraik, also a Rajya Sabha member, added.

Leaders of Trinamool Cha Bagan Sramik Union are holding micro-level meetings in tea gardens to inform residents about the government’s initiatives and that the Mamata Banerjee government is the first to prioritise the welfare of tea garden workers in a focused manner.

“Such meetings will go on, and we hope tea workers and their families will back us. They have realised that the BJP has not done anything for them,” Baraik claimed.