Political temperatures in West Bengal are yet to cool even more than a month after Assembly election results were announced. Since then, th...
Political temperatures in West Bengal are yet to cool even more than a month after Assembly election results were announced. Since then, the Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested senior ministers, the Union government has tried to recall – unsuccessfully – Mamata Banerjee’s right hand bureaucrat, and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national vice president has defected to the Trinamool Congress.
To add to this frenetic activity is a controversial demand by some BJP leaders calling for a partition of West Bengal, with the creation of a new Union territory of North Bengal.
What is the demand?
The matter was first raised in any official capacity during a Jalpaiguri meeting of the BJP on June 13, reported Bartaman. National security was pushed as the main reason with arguments that infiltration from Nepal and Bangladesh was allegedly continuing unchecked. The meeting was attended virtually by BJP president JP Nadda.
Since then, some BJP leaders have come on the record, asking for the division. Member of Parliament from Alipurduar, John Barla, said the creation of a North Bengal Union territory is “imperative in response to people’s demand”.
“I made the demand as there have been movements here for a separate Kamtapur, a greater Cooch Behar and for Gorkhaland,” Barla told PTI, referring to the statehood movements in North...
