The desperation in both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP to secure the Assembly seats of the north Bengal tea belt has prompted leaders of both camps to chant the mantra of wage hike to woo the tea population.

While Trinamool is keen to wrest the seats from the BJP, the saffron camp wants to retain the seats which it had won in the 2021 Assembly elections.

In north Bengal, tea workers and their families determine the results of 10 to 12 Assembly elections. In 2021, the BJP had won most of the seats.

On Saturday, as Trinamool’s national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee reached Alipurduar to attend an interaction with tea workers, he said if his party was voted to power, it would ensure that there was a hike in the daily wage of tea workers.

“If we are voted to power, we will ensure that a tripartite meeting is convened within a month and the daily wage is increased to ₹300,” he said.

As of now, a tea worker receives ₹250 per day. In 2011, when Trinamool came to power, the daily wage was ₹67. Since then, the Mamata Banerjee government has time and again revised the wage in consultation with the stakeholders.

However, the state’s initiative to fix a minimum wage, which is a longstanding demand of the tea workers, has not succeeded so far. In 2015, the state had constituted a committee comprising stakeholders and administrative officials to recommend the minimum wage in the tea sector, but the committee had not reached a consensus so far.

With Abhishek, who is considered to be the second most influential leader in the ruling party of the state, promising a wage hike ahead of the polls, leaders of the saffron camp, especially Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, whose constituency is also dotted with tea estates, were quick to react.

On Sunday, while talking to newspersons on the sidelines of an event in Siliguri, Bista said: “The daily wage of a semi-skilled worker is ₹350, why are the tea workers receiving only ₹250? It is the state’s responsibility to fix and implement the minimum wage, but the state government has done nothing in this regard.”

The MP also referred to the announcement of an allocation of ₹1,000 crore by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the 2021-2022 Union budget for the development of women and children in the tea belts of Bengal and Assam, the two highest tea-producing states of the country.

“The Assam government has received ₹600 crore and has spent it for infrastructural and other works in the tea belt. However, the Bengal government is sitting on the remaining ₹400 crore and not using it,” Bista, a national spokesperson for the BJP, alleged.

“Once we are voted to power, we will utilise this fund through the direct benefit transfer process to help the tea workers,” he added.

Such remarks from both sides hint that the parties want to draw support of the tea workers by assuring a rise in their income, a promise which can considerably influence the voters, said political observers.

“The Trinamool government has also addressed some other issues and met some longstanding demands of the workers, and is highlighting those ahead of the polls. It would be interesting to see how the BJP handles it,” said an observer.