Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on a sticky wicket in West Bengal, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) latching on to calls by a section of BJP leaders for the state’s bifurcation to paint the ruling party at the Centre as “anti-Bengal”.
While the BJP has officially dissociated itself from the bifurcation demand, at least two MPs — Rajya Sabha MP from Cooch Behar Anant Maharaj and BJP MP from neighbouring Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey — are batting for it. The latest to join the chorus is BJP MLA from Murshidabad Gouri Sankar Ghosh.
The areas the BJP leaders want carved out and made into a Union Territory (UT) are minority-dominated, prompting the TMC to accuse the ruling party at the Centre of “igniting communal fire”.
At a party rally in his constituency, Ghosh Wednesday raised the demand for the separation of Murshidabad from West Bengal on claims of deteriorating law and order and Hindus living in fear.
Speaking to ThePrint, Ghosh, a first-time BJP MLA, said, “In this district, there has been a downfall in law and order. There is no rule of law but the rule of jihadis. The national flag gets taken down here. Politicians get openly threatened. Hindus feel scared. As a public representative, I speak for the people — Murshidabad district needs to be a Centre-ruled area.”
Ghosh claimed he had been writing to Home Minister Amit Shah about his demand since 2022 and that Dubey has now supported his demand in Parliament.
Last Thursday, Dubey demanded that a UT be formed with the Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, the Araria, Kishanganj, and Katihar districts of Bihar, and the Santhal Parganas of Jharkhand. He told the Lok Sabha that the demography of the region is changing because “Bangladeshi infiltrators come and marry tribals”, urging the Centre to intervene and stop Hindus from “disappearing”.
Political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya called the issue “a strategic and tactical dilemma” for the BJP.
Explaining why a section of the Sangh Parivar favours bifurcating states as illustrated in the recent past, Bhattacharya said, “The Sangh Parivar, which includes the RSS and the BJP, favour smaller states. They backed most of the latest statehood demands, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. They believe smaller states are better for administrative delivery and tight control.”
On the sudden demand to merge parts of Jharkhand and Bihar with West Bengal, he said, “The Malda-Uttar Dinajpur-Murshidabad belt is contiguous with the Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, and Araria districts of eastern Bihar. Together, these seven districts have a heavier demographic presence of Muslims than western Uttar Pradesh, where most Indian Muslims live. So, this idea of carving out a separate UT out of these districts with high Muslim concentration, citing international borders with Bangladesh and Nepal, has gained popularity among a section of Sangh Parivar organisers in recent years.”
He added: “As the BJP has failed to do well in Bengal’s heartland districts — Kolkata and its neighbouring districts of Howrah, Hooghly, South and North 24 Parganas, and Purba and Paschim Bardhaman — all these long-term perspectives/propositions have now started churning among the BJP’s Bengal strategy-makers.”
On the heels of trouncing the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, the ruling TMC is not taking the issue lightly.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told ThePrint, “When the BJP has understood it is losing Bengal, it now wants to ignite the fire of communal politics and divide the people based on religion. Their ‘sab ka saath, sab ka vikas’ stands exposed.”
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‘Silent support’
It all started when BJP MP from Balurghat Sukanta Majumdar last week submitted a proposal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for the integration of six North Bengal districts under the North Eastern Council, with the BJP MP from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, Raju Bista, supporting his demand.
After that, Anant Maharaj renewed his push for a separate state carved out of Bengal’s Cooch Behar and parts of Assam. Anant Maharaj is also a leader of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association, which has political implications in North Bengal, where the BJP holds an edge over the TMC.
In the Lok Sabha elections, earlier this year, the BJP won six seats from North Bengal while TMC managed to seize the Cooch Behar seat from former Union MoS Nisith Pramanik.
According to Bhattacharya, “many within the Sangh Parivar believe North Bengal should be separated for security reasons — having international borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, while the China border lies in the vicinity”.
“Politically, they want to converge the Gorkhaland and the Kamtapur or Greater Cooch Behar statehood demands into the North Bengal state/UT demand,” he said.
The same, however, does not apply to Murshidabad, Malda, or Uttar Dinajpur.
“Malda and Uttar Dinajpur, the two Muslim-majority districts of North Bengal, are culturally very different from Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, and Dakshin Dinajpur. These two, along with Murshidabad of central Bengal, do not fall into the North Bengal pattern they (some members of the Sangh Parivar) want to create,” said Bhattacharya.
Speaking to ThePrint, Udayan Guha, West Bengal’s North Bengal development minister and TMC MLA, said, “While the leader of the opposition from the BJP and their spokespersons are saying they will not support the call for the bifurcation of Bengal, they are not acting against the leaders who are making these demands — which means there’s silent support. The people of Bengal will not allow the division of Bengal. BJP’s communal politics has been rejected in this state time and again.”
The TMC will likely raise a storm on this issue in the state legislative assembly on Monday, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expected to make a statement, which the people of the state will be closely hearing, considering this issue is now the main point of conflict between the ruling TMC and the opposition BJP.
Political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay said politicising the demand for dividing Bengal will negatively impact the BJP’s prospects in West Bengal.
“The BJP is opening Pandora’s box,” said Bandopadhyay, adding that such demands will go beyond Murshidabad.
“If the Kamtapur or Greater Cooch Behar demand surfaces again, the movement for Gorkhaland will also flare up,” he said.
“The BJP has its roots in North Bengal, where, if these demands come to the fore, they will be the greatest losers,” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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