Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for sending a proposal for dividing West Bengal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
TMC Kolkata (Uttar) MP and Leader of Lok Sabha Sudip Bandhopadhyay said that the BJP had earlier made a pact with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Bimal Gurung over making Darjeeling ‘Gorkhaland’.
“Several times Gurung came to Delhi and also met Amit Shah. BJP is forgetting that if they divide Bengal then whatever voters they have in Bengal, they will lose them. BJP is trying to do this division from long back and TMC has always opposed it and this time also we are opposing it. West Bengal cannot be divided,” said Bandhopadhyay.
BJP Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma, who had also contested the Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate said that this move is like a ‘Khayali Pulao’ and also that it cannot happen.
“I want to give a message to Sukanta Majumdar that if you want to get North Bengal in NEC then first separate those regions from West Bengal,” said Sharma.
Notably, on Wednesday state president and MoS Sukanta Majumdar on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted an official proposal to him for ways of incorporating North Bengal with North East India.
Later, in a video message, Majumdar said that if the region of North Bengal is incorporated with North East India, then people of North Bengal will get the benefits of the central government schemes.
BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Shamik Bhattacharya said that BJP is ‘never’ in favor of separating West Bengal.
“Shyama Prasad Mukherjee has made West Bengal. BJP is not in favor of separating West Bengal. But the fund allocation that the government of West Bengal does for North Bengal is negligible and even from that fund sometimes it gets siphoned to other projects. The West Bengal government has always neglected North Bengal,” said Bhattacharya.
BJP Darjeeling MP Raju Bisht also supported Sukanta Majumdar’s initiative.
It can be recalled that the state government has always been vocal in preventing the ‘division’ of West Bengal. Last year a resolution was passed in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly opposing bifurcation of the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also had time and again said that she will not allow 'division' of the state.
