Merge North Bengal with North East, BJP Minister Sukanta Mazumdar proposes to PM Modi; TMC Calls it secessionist

A fresh political face-off has erupted between BJP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) following BJP Bengal State President Sukanta Majumdar claiming that he has proposed to “merge northern part of Bengal with the North East”. TMC termed the move secessionist and anti-Bengal. Dr Mazumdar claimed that he had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and has given a proposal for his perusal. In a video message later posted on ‘X’, the Minister of State for Education claimed: “I met with the Prime Minister and handed over a presentation highlighting the similarities between north Bengal and North East states. I requested him to merge north Bengal with the North East”. He further added that the central benefits directed towards the North Eastern states of India, could then also cover the Northern Part of Bengal.

“The Prime Minister will decide on the proposal in due time. If North Bengal is incorporated into the North East, it will benefit from the Central government schemes. There will be more development. I do not think the state government will have objections to that and will cooperate,” Majumdar, an MP from Balurghat, which is in Northern part of Bengal,

Trinamool Congress called the move, another attempt to divide Bengal. In 2021 then BJP MP John Barla had publicly suggested to divide Bengal and make Northern Part of Bengal a separate state. BJP incidentally has managed to see a saffron surge in districts like Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Coochbehar all in of Northern Part of Bengal. TMC has called it a secessionist idea for political benefits. “This is a secessionist move on the part of a Union Minister. He has violated the oath of office under the Constitution. North Bengal is an integral part of West Bengal. Even the PM has no power to accept such unconstitutional and illegal demands. This is an evil design of the BJP to bifurcate West Bengal as it has faced humiliating defeats in all the elections in the state since 2011” said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy.

While Barla has openly demanded to divide Bengal, Mazumdar so far had steered clear from such a direct demand. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election TMC has wrested the Coochbehar seat from BJP. Mazumdar won the Balurghat seat for the second time in a row but his margin has come down by considerably. He won by less than eleven thousand votes. In 2019, he won by over thirty three thousand votes, an indication of the slipping ground. In the recent assembly By-election, TMC won the Raiganj seat, one that went to BJP during the Lok Sabha polls, a month ago.

TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta posted on X: “Anti-Bengal, Anti-Bengali. BJP is up to their old tricks again… Let me be very clear to the descendants of Radcliffe. Bengal has been partitioned before causing tremendous agony to millions, who lost everything…We will not let that happen again. We will fight to the last drop of our blood to protect the sovereignty, integrity and boundary of Bengal! Bengal will never be divided again.”​