A statue of Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, the last king of the erstwhile princely state of Cooch Behar, was unveiled on Monday by the Cooch Behar municipality at Amtala.

The statue was unveiled on the bank of Sagar Dighi and in front of the north Bengal development department’s office in the town, but its minister, Udayan Guha, did not attend the event of the civic body helmed by Trinamool Congress veteran Rabindranath Ghosh, again bringing to the fore the rift between the two camps.

The unveiling ceremony coincided with the 111th birth anniversary of the king.

The statue, a full-length figure measuring seven feet and two inches, was unveiled by Ghosh in the presence of district magistrate Raju Mishra, North Bengal State Transport Corporation chairman and former MP Partha Pratim Roy, Rajbanshi Development and Cultural Board chairman Banshibadan Barman, some senior Trinamool leaders and councillors.

“We are proud to unveil the statue on the 111th birth anniversary of the Maharaja. In the coming days, statues of Bishwa Singha and other royal figures will also be installed across the city,” said civic chairman Ghosh. “Cooch Behar is a heritage town because of its royal legacy, and this initiative is meant to familiarise the present generation with the history of those rulers,” he added.

However, the absence of Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister, raised eyebrows, especially as the statue was put up in front of his department’s office.

Ghosh claimed that minister Guha had been formally invited.

Responding to this, Guha said: “A WhatsApp message was sent without even mentioning to whom it was addressed. Is that an invitation? A phone call or an official letter on municipal letterhead could have been sent.”

Sources in the civic body said ₹1.98 lakh was spent on the statue, ₹65,000 on the construction of the pedestal, and another ₹3 lakh on landscaping, illumination and other ancillary infrastructure of the site.

In July this year, the installation of the statue had triggered a controversy.

As workers engaged by the municipality worked on the site, some officials of Guha’s department allegedly stopped work, citing a lack of permission.

This led to bitterness between Ghosh and Guha. Some Rajbanshi organisations expressed strong resentment, stating any objection to commemorating the memory of Cooch Behar’s last ruler was unacceptable. The situation escalated to protests demanding the statue be installed at the designated location.

The impasse was resolved following the intervention of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who spoke to Guha over the phone. Work resumed, leading to the formal unveiling of the statue on Monday.