A BJP MLA from north Bengal said in the Assembly on Thursday that people wanted the state government to either expedite development in that region or separate it.

Sikha Chatterjee, the Dabgram-Fulbari BJP MLA, flagged the issue of “deprivation”.

“People living in north Bengal have been deprived for years now. They demand that the state government either expedite development in their region or let them stay separately. This is what I have said in the Assembly today,” said Chatterjee.

The Dabgram-Fulbari seat which is in Jalpaiguri district comprises 14 wards of Siliguri Municipal Corporation and four contiguous panchayats.

In recent times, she is the second BJP MLA who has raised the demand for the separation of north Bengal from Bengal, which even goes against the party line of the state BJP.

Earlier, Kurseong BJP MLA B.P. Sharma (Bajgain), who is known to be a “dissident”, has spoken up for the longstanding demand of Gorkhaland state to be carved out of Bengal.

Since 2019, some BJP MPs, both sitting MPs and former MPs from north Bengal, have time and again raised the issue much to the displeasure of state BJP leaders.

“The state leaders had realised that advocating such a demand would jeopardise the party’s prospects in the rest of the state, including Calcutta. The situation was such that national leaders had to instruct elected representatives not to speak on the issue,” said a political analyst.

BJP MLAs had even supported the TMC resolution placed in the Assembly last August against any division of the state.

Chatterjee said she simply highlighted the demand of people of her area.

“People are saying it and being their representative, it is my responsibility to place it on this platform (Assembly). If the state cannot take up development, let it separate north Bengal and let it be a centrally-governed region or a similar arrangement so that development can speed up,” she said.

State BJP leaders, when contacted, denied commenting on the issue. “We hope she will clarify to the party as to why she came up with the issue on which our legislative party has already asserted its stand by supporting the resolution last year,” said a state BJP functionary.

TMC leaders accused the saffron camp of playing divisive politics.

“Assembly elections are due next year... and so some BJP MLAs are again resorting to the old strategy of playing divisive politics to draw votes. Such strategies will not work,” said Gautam Deb, a TMC veteran and the Siliguri mayor.

Deb, a two-time MLA from Chatterjee’s seat (she defeated him in 2021), said he was ready to take on the BJP to prove what the Mamata Banerjee government has done for north Bengal in its 14-year rule.

“If they (the BJP) want, I am ready to come up with elaborate data on what the state government has done for this region since 2011. It (Chatterjee’s statement) is an attempt to gain some political mileage,” he added.

Rajbanshi plea

Twenty-four BJP MLAs sent a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday, requesting him to include the Rajbanshi language in the Eighth Schedule of
the Constitution.

Anandamay Barman, the BJP MLA of Matigara-Naxalbari seat, said the Rajbanshi/Kamtapuri language has a rich literary tradition and should be recognised by the Centre.

Rajbanshi votes swing around half of the 54 Assembly seats of the region.