Kolkata, Feb 20 A BJP woman legislator on Thursday raised the demand for separate statehood for North Bengal on the floor of the West Bengal Assembly.
"If you are not able to ensure development for North Bengal, then give up that responsibility. Let North Bengal be a separate state," Sikha Chatterjee, the legislator from the Dabgram-Phulbari constituency in Jalpaiguri district of the region, said while participating in a debate on the state Budget proposals for 2025-26 on Thursday, which incidentally was the last day of the first round of the budget session of the assembly.
Later speaking to the media persons, the MLA said that the demand for separate statehood for North Bengal is now a demand of the people living there and not her personal demand.
"I am a public representative and I am just airing the opinion of my voters. The complaints of the people of North Bengal are multiple, starting from river bank erosion to lack of employment. The people there are really aggrieved because of the negligence on the part of the state government in addressing these problems," Chatterjee said.
She also said that if the state government is unable to solve these problems then it is better that this particular portion of the state comes under Central administration. "The people of north Bengal want development and it is my duty as an elected public representative from there to air such public views," Chatterjee said.
Responding to the demand, state Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said that such a demand for separate statehood for North Bengal is a reflection of BJP’s fear of election disaster from that region in the crucial Assembly elections in 2026.
"The popularity of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee among the people of North Bengal is constantly increasing because of the positive impacts of the state’s development schemes on the livelihood of people. The BJP has realised that their candidates will be defeated in most of the constituencies in north Bengal in 2026. So now they have started raising the demand for a separate statehood for the region, which they did before also," he said.
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