Locket Chatterjee, a Bengal BJP member of Parliament, has taken a position in opposition to that of party leaders Dilip Ghosh and John Barla on the call for the creation of a separate entity for North Bengal.
The Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika has reported that the divisions within the Bengal BJP appear to be deepening on the topic of separating the state. The report says that the state has been divided for a long time.
“During the Partition movement, Rabindranath Tagore initiated the Raksha Bandhan ceremonial,” BJP leader Locket Chatterjee remarked at a celebration of Raksha Bandhan. No matter what Dilip Ghosh or John Barla have claimed, Bengal will never be divided,” says the author.
According to the article, not just Locket Chatterjee, but also former Bengal BJP chairman Rahul Sinha, has stated that there can be no discussion of dividing Bengal into two regions.
Alipurduar MP John Barla had courted controversy in June when he called for the creation of a separate union territory encompassing all of north Bengal’s districts. Earlier this week, he reiterated the demand, claiming that the creation of a separate state for North Bengal is a reflection of the will of the people of the region.
In a news conference held in Siliguri as part of the BJP’s ‘Shahid Samman Yatra,’ Barla stated that he would discuss the issue at the right level in order to bring about the creation of a separate state.
The Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh then expressed support for John Barla, a Minister of State for Minority Affairs, saying, “If the demand for a separate north Bengal or Jangalmahal gains momentum, it is Mamata Banerjee who must carry the responsibility.”
Dilip Ghosh, on the other hand, made it clear that the views of John Barla were his own and that the BJP did not support them.
