JOIN USJohn Barla: From a tribal leader to a Union minister
From being a tribal leader to an Union minister, BJP MP John Barla has come a long way. He was sworn in as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs on Wednesday.
Starting his political career as a leader of tea garden workers in the Terai-Dooars region of West Bengal, the 45-year-old Barla has switched his political allegiance several times, although never officially becoming a member of the party before joining the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Born in a tribal family, Barla has a formidable support base among the tea garden workers in North Bengal. His organizational skills first drew the attention of the CPI(M) when it was in power in Bengal. Although he was never an official member of the party, Barla and his followers had supported the Left Front several times.
He officially started his political career as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABVP) in 2007. For a brief period, he toyed with the idea of joining the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) when they were agitating for the demand of the separate State of Gorkhaland. However, the possibility was nipped in the bud when he faced off against GJM chief Bimal Gurung in 2010 . At that time, Barla demanded that a separate state be carved out for the tribal and other backward communities of the Terai and Dooars region.
However, after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power in 2011, Barla switched his allegiance once again and supported the party.
Ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections, he joined the BJP and became instrumental in the saffron party’s rapid spread in the districts of North Bengal. He won from the Alipurduar Lok Sabha constituency with a thumping margin.
Recently, he courted fresh controversy by demanding that a separate Union Territory be carved out of the districts of North Bengal as the TMC government has been neglecting the region for years.