Multiple demands for division of north Bengal gives TMC a new handle against BJP
On August 1, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee instructed all district units in north Bengal to immediately hit the streets and counter movements aimed at dividing Bengal
Kolkata: In a throwback to the 2021 assembly poll scenario in West Bengal, several ethnic groups from the northern region have once again demanded separation from the state, close on heels of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar asking the Prime Minister to add north Bengal to India’s northeast region to ensure development.
On August 1, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee instructed all district units in north Bengal to immediately hit the streets and counter movements aimed at dividing Bengal, party leaders said.
Sukanta Majumdar, a Lok Sabha member from north Bengal’s Balurghat and Union minister of state for development of the northeastern region, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on July 23 with the proposal.
“If north Bengal gets added to the northeast, it will benefit by getting a share of the development funds. I am sure the state government will not have any objection. After all, the Mamata Banerjee government has failed to ensure development in north Bengal,” Majumdar said in a video message after meeting Modi.
Having resolved to condemn these by moving a resolution at the legislative assembly on August 5, the state’s ruling TMC has alleged that a conspiracy has been hatched to crush the spirit of Bengal.
“We want the BJP to take part in the debate on the resolution and make its stand clear on the floor of the House,” state parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.
North Bengal is considered a BJP stronghold since 2021, when the party bagged 30 of the 54 seats in the eight north Bengal districts, although TMC won 215 of the state’s 294 seats against the BJP’s 75.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP bagged 18 of Bengal’s 42 seats, creating a record. In north Bengal, it secured seven of the eight seats.
This year, the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally in Bengal has come down from 18 to 12 but the party had won six seats in north Bengal.
“What (Sukanta) Majumdar did is part of a multi-pronged conspiracy hatched by the BJP to divide Bengal geographically so that it can somehow break the indomitable spirit of liberal-minded Bengalis because of whom the saffron camp could not overpower TMC in any election,” TMC state vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar said.
“You will notice a chain of events unfolding after the BJP state president met Modi. We strongly suspect the plan is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” he added.
The first event in the chain, TMC says, took place on July 25 when Nishikant Dubey, a BJP Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand, demanded in Parliament that a Union Territory comprising Bengal’s Murshidabad and Malda districts and three districts of Jharkhand be formed by the Centre because Muslims were in the majority in these districts.
While the Bengal BJP distanced itself, saying it doesn’t support such a move, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, the party’s MLA from Murshidabad, backed Dubey and started organising movements in the district. Ghosh led his first rally on July 31. Another rally was held the next day.
While these debates are on, BJP Rajya Sabha member Nagen Roy, a Rajbanshi community leader popularly known as Ananta Maharaj, has voiced his old demand for a separate ‘Greater Cooch Behar’ state, claiming that the Centre had promised to implement it while nominating him to the Upper House in 2023.
“The Centre gave me its word. It should form the Greater Cooch Behar state before adding north Bengal to the North East,” Roy told the media on the Parliament premises on July 29 while the Budget session was on.
In yet another development that took many by surprise, the Kamtapur State Demand Committee met at Jalpaiguri town on July 28 and changed its name to Kamtapur State Demand Council before reiterating its demand for the creation of a separate state of Kamtapur. The outfit is seen as the public face of the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).
Formed in 1995, KLO carried out an armed struggle for a separate state for the Koch Rajbanshi community, which comprises a sizeable section of voters, especially in Cooch Behar district and adjoining Assam.
KLO militants were armed and trained in Assam by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants. According to the KLO’s original doctrine, its objective is to form the state of Kamtapur, comprising six districts of north Bengal and parts of Assam.
KLO chief Jiban Singha surrendered in Assam in 2023 responding to the state’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma’s proposal for peace talks.
“There have been several rounds of talks so far. We expect it to resume soon. We will take forward our longstanding demand,” said Tapati Roy Mullick, who was elected president of the newly formed council.
The ongoing rumblings have not spared to north Bengal’s Darjeeling district, where the demand for a separate state for the Gorkha community has led to violent movements and the loss of a few hundred lives since the 1980s. The community has helped the BJP win the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in all four elections since 2009.
BJP’s Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma called Sukanta Majumdar’s proposal “utopian” but said he would have supported him if he had proposed the creation of a separate state or Union Territory. Whereas, Bishal Lama, the BJP MLA from Kalchini in Alipurduar district, welcomed the proposal.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the leading force behind the Gorkhaland movement and BJP’s ally, has also backed Sukanta. Kishore Bharati, the GJM spokesperson, said, “The proposal seems to be a precursor to the separation of north Bengal.”
Against this backdrop, the Bengal BJP has claimed that it does not support any move to divide the state.
“West Bengal wouldn’t have come into being had Hindu nationalists such as Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (founder of Jan Sangh), Suniti Chatterjee, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, N C Chatterjee, Shibendu Sekhar Roy, and others not fought for it during the partition, and it would have become part of east Pakistan (now Bangladesh). If the BJP ever talks of splitting Bengal, then it will have to remove Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s photos from its offices,” Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
“As far as Ananta Maharaj is concerned, the Prime Minister never gave him any word about dividing Bengal. BJP has nothing to do with his demand. The party is looking into the statements made by Murshidabad MLA Gouri Shankhar Ghosh. I cannot comment on the Kamtapur State Demand Council because I am not aware of the talks the Assam government is having with Jiban Singha,” Bhattacharya, a Rajya Sabha member, added.
Political science professor Udayan Bandopadhyay said although the BJP has performed well in elections in north Bengal, any effort to divide the region will be counterproductive for the party.
“On paper, the Constitution permits the Centre to divide a state after seeking the state’s opinion. It does not require the state’s consent. But it is not that easy on the ground. If the BJP tries to divide north Bengal in any manner, the Gorkhaland issue will flare up. It will lead to a crisis that the BJP cannot handle at this moment,” Bandopadhyay added.