Rajbanshis to launch campaign against BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls over 'unmet demands'
Telegraph | 18 February 2024
The Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP), a regional political force in north Bengal with considerable clout among the Rajbanshis, has decided to launch a campaign against the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls over "unmet Rajbanshi demands".
“We have lined up a number of political activities in protest of the empty promises of BJP leaders. They have not done anything for the Kamtapuri (Rajbanshi) people in north Bengal and Assam. Our party will take the task to apprise people as to how the BJP duped us,” Uttam Kumar Roy, the general secretary of KPP, said here on Saturday.
He said that on February 29, the party will organise a rally in Cooch Behar town. Again, on March 6, the KPP will host a sit-in demonstration against the BJP at Bhetaguri in Dinhata subdivision of the district.
Nisith Pramanik, the BJP MP of Cooch Behar who is also a junior minister in the Union home ministry, is from Bhetaguri.
Such an announcement by a regional party which has a support base among Rajbanshis, has come as a fresh poser for the BJP. The saffron party is eyeing the Lok Sabha seats of north Bengal, and intends to retain all the seven (of eight) seats it had won in 2019.
The KPP leaders said that once the elections are announced, they will intensify their campaign against the BJP.
“In the Lok Sabha seats of north Bengal and contiguous areas of lower Assam, wherever the BJP will field a candidate, we go out in campaign against the party,” added Roy.
He said that many senior BJP leaders, including Union home minister Amit Shah, assured them that the Centre would create a Narayani regiment for royal troops of the erstwhile Cooch Behar state in the CAPF.
“We were told that the Centre would recognise our language and install a statue of (community icon) Panchanan Barma. Nothing happened,” said a KPP leader.
The Mamata Banerjee government in the state met these demands, unlike the Centre.
The state formed a Narayani battalion in the state armed police which is headquartered in Mekhliganj of the district, has recognised Rajbanshi language and installed a statue of Panchanan Barma.
The decision by the KPP, political observers said, would benefit Trinamul.
“In 2019, the BJP polarised votes by stoking the sentiments of Rajbanshis with lengthy commitments. But now that regional political forces have started raising questions, it will be interesting to see how BJP handles the situation,” said an observer.
BJP leaders in Cooch Behar, when told about the KPP’s stand, played the MP card.
“That the BJP is sincere about the Rajbanshis and intends to resolve their issues is evident as the party has sent Nagen Roy (Ananta Maharaj) as an MP to the Rajya Sabha. We believe people should keep patience,” said Biraj Bose, a district general secretary of the BJP.