Senior Trinamool Congress leaders in Cooch Behar on Saturday launched a sharp attack on two prominent leaders associated with different factions of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association (GCPA), questioning their perceived double standards and the purported political clout they wielded in the Rajbanshi community.

Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister and Dinhata MLA, and Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, launched a broadside against Bangshibadan Barman and Ananta Roy, who head two factions of the GCPA and are the proponents of the separate Cooch Behar state.

Guha and Jagadish were speaking at a public meeting in the Kismat-Dashgram area of the Dinhata subdivision.

Addressing the meeting titled “Bhumiputra Samabesh (a meeting of sons of the soil)”, Guha challenged Barman over his demand for 25 Assembly seats.

“Bangshibadan Barman is demanding 25 Assembly seats. If he has the courage, let him field candidates in all 25 seats and win. I challenge him,” Guha said. “He once contested the Lok Sabha elections and lost his deposit. Let him contest from Dinhata — he will be tested.”

Guha said there was no need to allocate even a single seat to Barman.

“There is someone in Cooch Behar who dresses like a king. When Mamata Banerjee visits, he bows before her, but later he holds public meetings claiming there is no difference between the BJP and Trinamool,” said the minister. “He moves around in a blue-beacon vehicle provided by the chief minister. Let him give that up first.”

Referring to Barman’s demand for 1,000 Rajbanshi-medium schools, Guha alleged that the real motive was financial gain.

“The government has already built schools. If 1,000 new schools are opened and two teachers are appointed in each, that means 2,000 jobs. That is where the real interest lies — to fill one’s own pockets,” he alleged.

The Cooch Behar MP said: “We have two Rajbanshi leaders in Cooch Behar — Ananta Roy, who is with the BJP, and Bangshibadan Barman, who is the chairman of the Rajbanshi Development Board.”

“Bangshibadan meets Mamata Banerjee and then calls meetings to criticise her government. You cannot stay in the party, enjoy government positions, and simultaneously oppose the government,” he added.

The MP claimed it was the Trinamool government that had rehabilitated Barman and Roy politically. “If the Left Front were still in power, they would have been rotting in jail. Mamata Banerjee freed them. And now they hold meetings against the same government,” he said.

Taking a dig at Roy, a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP, Jagadish criticised his use of royal symbols and questioned his royal lineage.

“His home is in Gosanimari. We grew up together. When did he become a king? Which Cooch Behar royal lineage does he belong to? Do Rajbanshi people really believe his claims?” asked the Cooch Behar MP.

Political observers pointed out that despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s repeated efforts to court the Rajbanshi community — by appointing Barman to key government positions and maintaining contact with Roy, the community has largely remained distant from Trinamool in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 Assembly polls.

“It seems Trinamool is redrawing its strategy, aiming to weaken regional identity-based outfits by forcing them into independent electoral contests. This can split Opposition votes, particularly those of the BJP,” said an observer.

“Such open attacks by district Trinamool leaders would not have happened without a clear signal from the state leadership,” he added.