New Delhi, May 28 (TIWN): As if multiple setbacks in different parts of West Bengal during the recently-concluded Lok Sabha election were not bad enough, the result of the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat has dealt a body-blow to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's plans to expand Trinamool Congress' (TMC) electoral footprint in the region. To make matters worse, Binoy Tamang, the TMC-supported Independent candidate for the local Assembly bypoll who has been central to her initiatives in the hills, also lost badly.

Together, these outcomes have the potential of realigning the state of politics there.

Was it that a silent majority €" which had its share of discontent over Mamata's aspirations to chart a new future for the hills €" abetted by sections of the local political leadership, serving as foot-soldiers, awaiting an opportunity to speak? If so, it may have found a voice in the recent elections, rewarding the BJP with resounding victories in both Assembly bypoll and Lok Sabha election. The emotionally-charged issue of Gorkha identity that has re-positioned itself in the foreground of the collective political imagination seems to have outflanked Mamata's attempts to seize the initiative in the hills on the back of an agenda framed by the purported 'development' narrative.