POLITICAL ROW OVER PROPOSAL TO 'BIFURCATE' BENGAL

The demand for a separate state or union territory status for north Bengal is because of neglect by Kolkata.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

On Wednesday, Sukanta Majumdar, the West Bengal BJP president who is also Minister of State for Education and Development of the North-eastern Region (DONER), posted a video on his X handle, saying he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted a proposal to him requesting him to include six north Bengal districts in the NEC. “As a part of Bengal, the region can be included in the NEC so that more Central funds can be made available to expedite the development of the region,” Majumdar said.

The NEC, which covers seven states of the Northeast and Sikkim, was set up in 1972. Since 1998-99, 10% of the annual planned budget of 52 Central Ministries has been earmarked for the Northeast. In 2023-24, Rs 5,892 crore was allocated for the Ministry of DONER.

The statement set off a political firestorm as the Trinamool Congress strongly protested the proposal. It has gone all out to attack the BJP as “anti-Bengal”, accusing the saffron party of trying to divide the state. It also triggered deep disquiet within the state BJP, which is still to recover from repeated electoral drubbings at the hands of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The development is being seen as Majumdar trying to consolidate the BJP’s core support in the state, one that has given electoral dividends to the party. After all, he was re-elected from the Balurghat Lok Sabha seat in South Dinajpur, an impoverished district in north Bengal.

While most would agree to Majumdar’s theory that the northern parts of Bengal (comprising the districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda) have remained impoverished, lagging behind in development as compared to the plains of south Bengal, any suggestion of a possible division of the state is fraught with major risk of a political backlash.