Bengal BJP is vertically divided over State party president Dilip Ghosh’s open stand in favour of partitioning Bengal.
Contradicting what Ghosh said on Saturday in support of Union Minister John Burla’s demand for a separate State comprising the districts of North Bengal, former State party president Rahul Sinha on Sunday said “there is no question of the BJP supporting any divisive cause … we want to make all those who have been making such comments aware of what Rabindranath Tagore did on Raksha Bandhan Day … he called upon the people of undivided Bengal to tie rakhi on each other’s hands as a mark of unity … how can we being the descendents of Tagore uphold such mischievous demands…
“I can say with full responsibility on behalf of my party that irrespective of some individual sentiments the BJP has never been in support of partitioning Bengal … the BJP wants a united and prosperous State.”
Ghosh had earlier made a strong point in support of Burla an MP from Alipurduar saying “if he has said something … it is not unjustified because as a representative of the people he has a duty towards airing the views of the people of that region.”
Burla had on more than one occasion demanded division of Bengal by carving out a separate State comprising the districts of North Bengal.
“There has been no development in this part of the State for decades … the local people have their aspirations which have to be fulfilled as the previous Governments have failed to perform the people of this region want a separate State … they can settle for even a Union Territory … at least we will be under the Centre so that a full-fledged development of this area can take place,” Burla had said even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi made him a central minister
apparently dropping a silent hint of the BJP’s ideas.
Though Ghosh had distanced himself from Burla’s views earlier saying it was the saffron MP’s personal views, on Saturday he made u-turn saying “he has full right to make such demands.” In fact while backing Burla in North Bengal Ghosh also took into the sweep of his argument the Jangalmahal areas of South Bengal saying the leaders of both these regions deserved to demand separate States because the “Mamata Banerjee Government has done nothing for them … there has been no development … no big hospital, no job opportunity … the people have to go to other States like Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat from these regions for jobs and medical help … so I think such demands have arisen from deprivation of these regions.”
When asked whether his statement could adversely affect the party’s performance among the Bengali-speaking people Ghosh said “even Mamata Banerjee backed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha against the Left Government in order to earn supporters in Darjeeling and Terrain region … even the TMC struck an alliance with the GJM even after they were asking for a division of Bengal.”
Incidentally BJP has a stronghold in North Bengal and Jangalmahal sending most of its MPs and MLAs from these regions.
According to sources in the party Ghosh was making such comments to hold together the disintegration of his party in these regions. In fact Ghosh’s comments came almost in tandem with 11 local level BJP leaders joining the Trinamool Congress in North Bengal.
“If he does not raise such issues then the party will simply collapse with a section going to the TMC and the other going to the Left which had a strong following in this area before 2019,” said IK Lahiri a political analyst.
Attacking Ghosh for his “irresponsible statements” TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said, “BJP is encouraging fissiparous elements to divide
Bengal after suffering a humiliating defeat in the recent assembly election…. But the people will reject them in 2024.”
Another senior leader and minister Firhad Hakim said “if the BJP continues to do so they will be obliterated from Bengal. A third leader said that “Burla is trying to play with the tribal votes of North Bengal but in trying to win 4 lakh votes his party will lose the vote of 20 lakh Bengali-speaking people,”