After BJP’s MP from Alipurduar John Burla who on Saturday demanded a “separate Union Territory or a State” out of North Bengal it is the turn of his Lok Sabha colleague Soumitra Khan to raise a similar demand.
The stench of divisive politics wafted into the southern parts of the State as the Bishnupur MP on Monday cried out for a separate Rarh Banga State — comprising the southeastern districts of Bengal.
Though the State BJP unit distanced itself from its two Lok Sabha Member’s statements curiously it backed the “genesis” of their demands: Lack of Development in these reasons.
Incidentally both North Bengal and Rarh Bengal --- comprising Purulia, Bankura parts of Birbhum and Jangalmahal — have of late emerged as a saffron stronghold that the BJP is desperate to retain in the face of the alleged — “devour all” — aggressive policy of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
“When Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can call the Prime Minister of the country a outsider tomorrow she may even call us outsiders … she should immediately withdraw her ‘outsider’ remarks,” Khan a former TMC leader who later joined the BJP before 2019 general elections said.